Shanghai Girls

The family has settled into their new home by the summer of 1952. During this time, Old Man Louie grows increasingly forgetful and is no longer the domineering patriarch he once was. Vern is still alive, though he must stay in bed, and Pearl has taken on the chore of tending to him. Joy is in high school, living up to her parents’ academic expectations and behaving like a proper, obedient daughter.

Upon returning home one day, the sisters are shocked to find Old Man Louie reading a copy of China Reconstructs, a Chinese Communist magazine. He is most interested in the cover art, which displays two girls who look exactly like Pearl and May. Pearl realizes that the artist is Z.G. She concludes that he still lives in Shanghai and still loves her all these years later. A week later, the family learns that Old Man Louie has developed lung cancer, and he only has months to live. When he dies, everyone follows the traditional Chinese funeral customs to give him a good send-off into the afterlife.