The Only Girl in the Family “Useless Girl”
Tough love may be tough to give, but it is a necessity of life and an assurance of positive growth. In the book The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy, Liang, the only daughter receives more tough love than any other member of the family. Liang struggles with her gender and status in the family, and we see her develop her identity throughout part one of the book by many other factors as well. Poh-Poh and Wong Suk have two completely different tactics to help Liang find her identity. Poh-Poh is harsh and gives Liang a taste of the real world which isn’t so pretty, and Wong Suk takes a softer approach by guiding Liang through life making her make her own decisions. The person Liang is already and the people around her have an impact on her identity whether it affects her positively or negatively.
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Her status in the family is one of the factors that influence her identity. For instance, Liang is already discouraged by the fact that Sek-Lung her brother “received twice the number of jade and gold bracelets” (31) when he was a baby. When Liang was little she didn’t get much of those special things, which shows how much respect she gets and importance she is to the family. Very few people noticed Liang’s new dress at Sek-Lung’s baby shower and it didn’t take long for people to notice something else like “Poh-Poh and Stepmother’s embroidery” (31), it seems as though Liang is easily forgotten. She has to help her little brother with diapers, and has to put up with all his crying and snoring. In Liang’s point of view, it gets subsequently annoying for her to take care of Sek-Lung. Because her status in the family is nowhere near as important as Sek-Lung’s, no one cares. All she is good for to Poh-Poh is to “keep your dress clean” (45), Liang is basically Poh-Poh’s