Shawna Yang Ryan

Was it possible this one would be a son too? She hoped so, but not because she favored men. Her husband modeled the seriousness, the stoicism, that she hoped her sons would inherit, but she had nothing to teach a daughter. She could teach her to dream__ay, to be a painter, as she herself had been trained__nd then teach her to let it go. Teach her to cloister herself in dark hallways, admiring how the light fell through the rice-paper doors while knowing that there was no point in putting it on canvas.

I understand,_ she says, and then she quotes Du Fu: __he country is broken, but the mountains and rivers remain._ Her eyes flash; he catches sight of the fire in this modest woman. __e are the mountains and rivers,_ he says, impressed. __o matter what the country is called.