Content Warning: This section includes discussion of anti-Chinese xenophobia, anti-immigrant biases, bullying, abuse, child loss, and racism.

Lina is a 10-year-old Chinese girl who grew up in Beijing. In the backstory, Lina’s mother, father, and baby sister, Millie, emigrate to the US when Lina is five, leaving her to stay with her maternal grandparents. Lina’s grandfather, Lao Ye, passes away in the year before the story begins, and as a result, Lao Lao and Lina are close. Lina helps Lao Lao as she ages: “Now I am Lao Lao’s human alarm clock (I wake her every day at 6 a.m.), dumpling steamer, pu’er brewer, flower waterer, and medicine fetcher” (2).

Just before the novel opens, Lina applies to middle schools in Beijing; she knows her Aunt Jing feels a school that trains her to be a “workhorse” instead of an artist is best. Further, Lao Lao cautions her to hold in at least half of her ideas and opinions so that she is not labeled “a bad apple” (2). When Mom calls to ask if Lina is content with a Beijing middle school, Lina takes a great leap in voicing her desire to leave China; this shows her immense courage and craving for change to a place where she can speak, think, and pursue art more freely.