For example, to protect her grandchildren from evil spirits, Popo tells them that they came from unwanted eggs of a stupid goose; they came from eggs so valueless that they weren't fit to be "cracked over rice porridge." An-mei believes this tale — literally; later, when her mother arrives unexpectedly, An-mei notes that her mother has a long neck "just like the goose that had laid me." Here, Tan extends her original parable of the duck who became more; An-mei's long-necked, goose-like mother transformed herself into something quite different — something entirely inappropriate, according to Grandmother Popo.
To An-mei, her mother looks strange, "like the missionary ladies." Her face is a dark shadow when An-mei first sees her; she seems insolent and bossy, and her foreign clothes and high-heeled shoes suggest evil, suggest a woman worthy of contempt — exactly as Popo and Auntie described her in their many tales about her to An-mei. However, the woman's tenderness toward little An-mei and her uncontrolled wailing at the memory of An-mei's being accidentally burned belie her Western — thus, suspect — appearance.
Tan's tapestry of narrative again unfolds yet another picture of uncomfortable identity and traditions of heritage. To honor Popo in the ancient, accepted way, in an attempt to save her from dying, An-mei's mother makes a physical sacrifice. Communication has been severed between An-mei's mother and Popo just as it was between June Woo and her mother. Now, An-mei's mother severs part of her own flesh to enrich the soup that she hopes will heal Popo.
