The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

It’s 1961 and Lilly Dyer and her family have moved to Taiwan after living in Texas, and she is having trouble fitting in at the school for American military children. Bringing an Asian lunch to school, the girls make fun of her for her smelly meal, saying she will have a “smelly gook baby” (75).

Lilly wants to get out of the house. She sees a water buffalo and, having always wanted to be a cowgirl, she leaps on its back. Kan Chen-hua and his grandson, Ch’en Chia-feng, or Teddy, rescue her. Mr. Kan teaches calligraphy but adds that he does some magic. He is a literomancer: he tells fortunes based on the characters in people’s names and characters that they choose. So, he does this for Lilly, explaining the context of the word “gook.” He also gives her a mirror to ward off the girls who are teasing her.

That night, Lilly reads some papers her father dropped. The following day, Lilly uses the mirror when the girls make fun of her, and they run when they see scary, ugly faces in it.

Her friendship with Teddy and Mr. Kan continues. Teddy tells her he’d like to play for the Red Sox someday, and Lilly finds that idea ridiculous, but encourages him.