A Pair of Tickets

June May is on a journey of discovering and accepting her Chinese identity. This is a part of herself that she has denied. She notes that even her Caucasian friends think she is just “about as Chinese as they were” (293); however, the opening paragraph of the story finds June May thinking, “The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. […] I am becoming Chinese” (293).

Another instance of June May beginning to identify with her Chinese heritage is when she is at the customs station in Guangzhou. Here she compares her present appearance to the photo of herself captured on her American passport. She looks different in China, without make-up and with her hair unstyled and flattened from the humidity. Although she no longer identifies with the American version of herself in the passport photo, she still doesn’t quite think of herself as “true Chinese.” She says, “Even without makeup, I could never pass for true Chinese” (296), reflecting on her above-average height, possibly due to Mongol heritage.

Yet the more time June May spends in China with her Chinese family, the greater her interest in her Chinese heritage and identity becomes.