Daughters of Shandong

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of violence, gender-based discrimination, and child death.

Chung’s characters undertake various strategies of self-preservation. While Hai and her sisters learn to be self-reliant when necessary, their experiences as refugees also teaches them the value of self-preservation through community and mutual support.

Although Hai’s culture places a strong emphasis on familial bonds, Hai’s experience proves that it is often voluntary communal bonds that are the strongest and most reliable. The Angs choose to include only select members of the family when they flee the Communists, leaving Mom and her daughters unprotected and isolated on the family estate. Their abandonment forms a significant contrast with the kindness of the Zhangs, who take in Mom and the girls, even at the risk of angering the Communist soldiers. The willingness of the Zhangs to help despite the risks is, in turn, a reflection of the selfless way Mom has behaved for years towards the community of workers, earning their loyalty and gratitude through helping them whenever she could.

Mom and the girls also develop a strong community inside the camp at Mount Davis and, later, at Rennie’s Mill. Their circle is made up mostly of other Northerners, like Mr.