How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Before the altar, which was laden with offerings for the ancestors, Grandfather sat, telling stories to the very old and the very young. (1.81)
Grandfather is the patriarch--the male head honcho—of the Wong clan in China. The ritual of the New Year's festival is one constant in Shirley's life since it happens every year, and he always performs the same rites. Shirley is so much a part of the Wong family dynamic that, when she's in China, she's inextricable from her relatives. There's a concrete, unchanging structure, and she's a part of it.
Quote #2
Grandfather tapped his pipe once more, calling the clansmen to order. Straightening his back, he pronounced the official words. "I, as Patriarch, do hereby advise my clansmen that my sixth grandchild, the thirty-third member of the House of Wong now living under the ancestral roofs, and one of the thirty-ninth generation registered in the Clan Book, will now be known as Shirley Temple Wong. (1.112)
Here's the beginning of the change. Shirley updates her name from Sixth Cousin to Shirley Temple Wong and, in doing so, begins to extract herself from the Wong family as she's known it. She carves out a bit of her own identity, separate from that of her other relatives. This is the first time she is able to assert herself independent of others.
Quote #3
Taking one of Father's hands in her left and one of Mother's in her right, Shirley jumped up and down. "Take us home, Father. Take us home." (2.41)
Shirley's immediate family—her parents—doesn't change as she moves to New York City. They remain constant, but the circumstances around her alter drastically. They will be the one familiar thing in a sea of newness for her.