mah jong an ancient Chinese game introduced to America in 1920. The game is played with dice, racks, and 144 domino-like tiles, divided into seven suits — bamboos (bams), circles (dots), characters (cracks), dragons, winds, seasons, and flowers. The game is usually played by four people. After the tiles are mixed, each player builds a wall two tiles high and about seventeen tiles long. The walls are pushed together to form a square. Players take tiles from the square to form specific combinations.
number-three concubine Polygamy is a form of marriage in which a person has more than one mate. Polygamy has been widely practiced at various times by many people throughout the world but has never been the norm. Usually only rich and powerful men have more than one wife. Polygamy sometimes results in the maintenance of separate households for each wife, as in some wealthy, pre-revolutionary Chinese families. The shared household was more frequent — especially with Muslims and many Native American tribes before the colonization of America. Polygamy is still common in some Muslim countries and in parts of Africa, but the practice is illegal in most of the world. Concubinage is a form of polygamy. The concubine's status is inferior to that of the primary wife. Her status declines the further removed she is from the primary wife. A number-three concubine, therefore, would have almost no status at all within the household. This practice was legal at one time in many countries, including pre-revolutionary China.
partner/associate Partners are people who own a percentage of a business. Lawyers, architects, and accountants, for example, are often partners in their business. As partners, they share in a firm's liability, which means that if the firm is sued, for instance, they all are responsible for the costs. Partners take this risk because they usually make much more money than associates. Associates are salaried employees. They get a set amount of money each pay period — no matter how much money the firm makes.
pawn one of eight chess figures of one color; it has the lowest power and value. Pawns are usually moved one square at a time vertically; they capture diagonally. The word has come to mean a person who is used or manipulated to further another person's purposes.
Price Club one of a series of enormous warehouse stores. These cavernous stores are stripped of amenities such as dressing rooms, music, fancy displays, and a multitude of salespeople. Sometimes one must belong to a union or other large organization to be a member. There is also a yearly membership fee. Since the stores are so stripped down, their prices tend to be far less than department stores. Like the "twice-used Macy's bag," Tan mentions the store to let the reader know that the mother is very concerned with getting her money's worth. Unlike the daughter, the mother is very thrifty.
queen the most powerful chess piece of either color. The queen can move any unobstructed distance in any direction.
sanddabs any of a number of West Coast flatfish.
she died just like a rabbit Suyuan's stroke occurred in her brain, killing her instantly, just as one would club a rabbit in the head — without warning. She had no symptoms. One moment she was alive; the next, she was dead.
