Ying-ying was restless her nurse (her amah) had dressed her in the heavy silk jacket and pants that Ying-ying's mother had made for her daughter to wear to the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival fell on a very hot autumn day. It was not always so on the night when she was four years old, she shared her thoughts with the Moon Lady. She and her daughter can no longer hear one another because Ying-ying rarely voices her thoughts. In contrast to that loss and eventual reclamation, Ying-ying explains that today, as an old lady, she realizes that she and her daughter have suffered similar losses, and she wonders if these losses will ever be recovered. She feels as though she has not only lost her family, but that she has also lost her "self." As an old lady many years later, Ying-ying poignantly tells how she "lost herself." She says that she surrendered her identity as she felt herself being transformed into a shadow, insubstantial and fleeting. Four-year-old Ying-ying, who has fallen overboard, is desperate to be "found" - to once again be reunited with her family - and with herself. The drama in which the Moon Lady is a major character concerns the loss and reclamation of cultural and individual identities.
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