Canning and June May travel from the periphery of the country to the center, back to the periphery, from which they will presumably depart for their return to the United States. The geographical setting symbolizes the characters’ journey into the center of their familial history and their identities. In the center of the country, Guangzhou, June May learns the full story about the separation of her mother from her twin daughters. She requests her father explain that history in Chinese, a language that she has thus far resisted hearing or using. And in Shanghai, June May meets her long-lost sisters and reconciles her Chinese identity, something that will go with her when she returns to the United States.

Concrete realities about the setting also serve to challenge June May’s misconceptions of China and help her begin to embrace her Chinese identity: The wealth and capitalistic features of a communist country challenge her preconceived notions about China. Her experience with the crowdedness of public transport at the train station in Guangzhou finds June May at first resisting the pushing, streaming crowd, but then she embraces the cultural ways: “I am in China, I remind myself. And somehow the crowds don’t bother me.