Room to Dream

“My mom had been studying so hard. And now her dream of being a teacher in America was finally coming true!”

Mom’s path to becoming a teacher in America is one of the major subplots of Room to Dream. Throughout the book, she works hard to achieve her goal. This line utilizes dramatic irony, since teaching will prove to be more difficult than she anticipated. Even though Mia’s mom can teach now, she must continue to persevere as she fights for respect from her students. This added layer of challenge ties into the theme of The Pressure to Overperform in Oppressed Communities.

“Ever since my mom’s sisters turned her down for money when we were trying to buy the motel two years ago, things had been a little tense.”

One of the biggest family tensions in the book is with Mia’s family back in China. Mom’s sisters don’t hide their disapproval of her decision to move to the United States, and they are quick to make judgmental remarks. Mom struggles to remind herself why they moved in the first place, especially since they are worse off financially than they may have been if they’d stayed in China.

“I didn’t know why it bothered me that Hank thought we didn’t have toilet paper in China, but it did. It wasn’t like we were going to the Stone Age!”

Even though Mia was young when her family moved from China to Anaheim, she is still from China and is protective of its image. Several assumptions about China in the book are made based on the idea that Western culture is more modern while China is “outdated,” which is an inherently racist point of view. Regardless of whether Hank intended to be racist, the comment stung for Mia.

“And we were going to China, where everyone looked like me. No one would ever try to hide me in the back because I didn’t have the right hair color.”

Mia refers here to the moment when the school photographer asked her, Jason, and Lupe to step to the back row for the class picture, ensuring only white students would be in front. When Mia leaves for China, she is under the false impression that she will fit in more there. However, the dramatic irony is that even in China, she struggles with the feeling of being an outsider.

“We were a ‘mom-and-pop’ place. Literally: There’s my mom and there’s my pop.”

One of the reasons Mia is so aware of the effects of gentrification is because her family runs a small business: the Calivista Motel. Mia’s first-person perspective is therefore key to building the theme of The Effects of Gentrification on Small Businesses. She knows firsthand the amount of personal care and attention to detail that she and her family and friends put into making the experience great for guests. She also knows firsthand how much they all depend on the business to live in the United States.

“I couldn’t believe he’d kissed me. Without asking first. We were friends. Just friends.”

Mia is caught off guard when Jason kisses her, and from then on things between them are uncomfortable. One of the issues that the book explores is sexism, which concerns the concept of consent and the differing expectations of boys and girls when it comes to dating. Later, Mia uses her skills as a writer to identify the source of her discomfort—Jason’s disregard for her consent—and to call these double standards out.

“I hadn’t thought of it as coming home. If this was home, what was the Calivista?”

Mia and her parents are constantly torn between their identity as Chinese, and their new identities as American. They are trying so hard to fit in in America, but their visit to China makes them doubt everything, including what is “home” for them now. This question plants the seed for what will grow into a bigger problem: Mia’s dad considering moving back to China to make more money.

“Thanks to the one-child policy, none of us had any siblings. So we were each other’s brother and sister.”

Yang uses the setting of the book, 1990s Beijing, to address some important political issues that China faced at the time. The one-child policy, an attempt to curb overpopulation, was in effect from 1980 to 2016. This highly criticized policy stated that families were only permitted to give birth one time, or could face penalization, ultimately leading to several major issues in China.

“All the things I wanted to say to [Shen], but it was too expensive to call and we didn’t have a stable enough to send letters back and forth.”

Throughout the book, Mia battles with a sense of loneliness and estrangement from her friends and family. While the friends she misses in Anaheim are still within reach, it is much harder for her to stay in contact with her cousin Shen when she leaves China again. This is an important reminder of the sacrifice that comes along with following your dream. Mia finds a way around this obstacle when she starts writing for the China Kids Gazette, as Shen is able to keep up with her life in a way he couldn’t before.

“I loved the beautiful hutongs with their interlocking courtyard homes. They reminded me of Old China and our thousands of years of history.”

Gentrification is not only an attack on small, independently owned businesses, but also on cultural identity itself. Mia’s aunt argues that it is more practical for the grandparents to live in a newer apartment, but in moving, they would be giving up a way of life that serves them well and is tied to their culture and history. Cutting corners and prioritizing efficiency is not always the answer, especially when it comes at the cost of one’s identity.

“I was sick of all the remarks about skin color, but people in China seemed fixated on it.”

When Mia first came to China, she made the assumption that there wouldn’t be racism. Instead, she finds it to be prevalent there. Some of her cousins and other family members make insensitive comments to Hank, who is Black, and they touch his hair without permission. Mia herself is scolded for getting tan in the Anaheim sun, instead of attempting remain pale. Mia learns that it is not just the United States that has issues: China needs to learn to be more open-minded as well.

“Because of the Cultural Revolution […] The Red Guards came and all the schools had to close.”

Education is highly emphasized by Mia’s family in Room to Dream. After the Cultural Revolution, education is seen as a gift more than ever before. The freedoms in the United States that made it more possible to pursue one’s dreams and a better life were among the main reasons Mia’s parents decided to leave China.

“I smiled. Was it true that I suddenly had four hundred thousand new friends?”

Once Mia is published in the China Kids Gazette, the details of her life are shared with hundreds of thousands of readers. These readers become invested in what happens to Mia and write to her with their own advice and opinions. At first this is exciting, but Mia soon learns that writing in the heat of the moment, then publishing it, can cause the writing to be biased, and in turn, make the readers biased. This bias eventually puts a strain on her friendships in Anaheim.

“I was always going to be honest with my readers, even if it was embarrassing or uncomfortable.”

Eventually, Mia learns the rules to good journalism and decides to see things from all angles before putting pen to paper. This not only makes her a better writer but also a better friend. When she stops thinking of herself first, Mia realizes that Lupe is not trying to be a bad friend by going to the high school, she is just under an immense amount of pressure to succeed.

“Now when the waves came, we swam through them together.”

As Mia writes about meeting Lupe for the first time, she is reminded of how strong they are when they stick together. She realizes that she needs to have an open conversation about the recent strain on their friendship, instead of writing to strangers about their problems. Lupe has been there for Mia through thick and thin, and now it’s Mia’s turn to show up for her best friend. In the context of friendship, Mia’s dedication to resolving her difficulties with Lupe speaks to the theme of Perseverance in the Face of Adversity.

“Remember that friendship is like a river-there are ebbs and flows. Just because you’re in an ebb doesn’t mean the whole river’s dried up.”

When Lupe starts spending so much time studying, Mia is worried she will lose her friend forever. She tells her worries to Mrs. T, who responds with the quote above. Friendship is not always easy, and there will be times when friends disagree. However, if you love someone, you work on that relationship and try to mend it when its hurt. Just like dreams, friendships take perseverance.

“But now, as I stroll through my city, I want to shout at the overpriced throw blankets and the soggy tacos: Where’d my city go?”

Mia recalls wanting to fit in when she first moved to the United States. Now, as gentrification threatens dozens of her favorite small businesses, she recognizes the importance of individuality. The very things that set the mom-and-pop businesses apart from the mega corporations are the very things that make them special. The same, Mia discovers, applies to herself.

“I got that he was disappointed, but why did he always have to get so angry? Couldn’t he listen to me for once?”

Jason frequently has fits of anger when Mia rejects his romantic advances. This behavior is tied into the double standard that Mia’s dad mentions, namely that society has different expectations for boys than for girls when it comes to dating. His anger and impulsive behavior drives a wedge between him and Mia, one that could be avoided if he communicated with her instead.

“I’d noticed the homeless population seemed to be going up recently. I scribbled a note in my notebook to check out the local real estate prices, for businesses like the Magnolia shop and apartments.”

In undermining small businesses, gentrifications has a ripple effect on entire communities, spreading harm in many different ways. One issue is the raising of rent and real estate prices, meaning less people have access to affordable housing.

“I was starting to realize that labels were like soda cans—they get thrown around a lot, but if you crush them with your feet, they don’t take up any space at all.”

Mia’s confidence grows when she decides not to listen when her readers call her names. She knows who she is, and that is enough to make any mean comments lose their power. When she isn’t dictated by her worries of looking boy crazy, she has much more fun at the school dance.

“I wondered if the American dream was like a park slide. You climbed and climbed and climbed, but boy, was it easy to slide back down.”

This quote ties into the theme about the pressure to overperform when you are part of an oppressed community. If you are deemed an “other” in America (be it due to race, sex, or immigration status), you automatically are expected to work harder toward your dream in order to be noticed and/or successful.

“Slowly, he told me and Lupe about his new teachers at the elite cooking school, and about how they’d been giving him a hard time for cooking Chinese food, calling his station greasy, smelly, and dirty.”

Some of Jason’s moodiness is explained when he finally admits to his friends what is going on in his life. At his cooking school, he is facing discrimination for cooking traditional Chinese food, instead of the euro-centric food that the school deems as “classic.” Fortunately, when he talks to his friends, he gets the courage to keep cooking what he wants and impresses the judges.

“We’ll make the money here. Together. […] I’m your lucky penny, remember?”

Mia’s dad spends the majority of the book embarrassed by his job as a professional cleaner. He feels that he has failed his family by not making more money and even considers leaving them for a job in China so he can send more money back to them. Mia and her mom both object, as his worth is not in how much money he makes. When Mia communicates this sentiment to him in these lines, he seems to finally believe her.