Review of the <Red Bean Ice> By Nancy Lee This is a fabulous short story talking about a typical family

with different cultures and various languages inside Canada. It is no doubt that Canada is the most multicultural country all over the world, advocating the Mosaic concept defined as Mosaic is a complete piece of glass that contains different pieces of glass with different colors which represent different cultures, under the bilingual frame. However, it does exist barriers between different cultures, no matter in economics, politics, and somewhere else. After reading the story, it is not difficult to make a interference how the family is made up by. The main characters of the story are narrator and her mother and daughter, at the same time, the narrators husband and her dad appears briefly in the story, too. As I am a Chinese too, I know how to say Cantonese and Mandarin, I come to Canada this multicultural country for study. I feel like moving to a new environment, and speaking English. Everything is getting curious but strange to me so that I need time to adapt this new atmosphere. That is to sad, I am experiencing the culture shock. There is always culture shock and the communication gap between generations or even inside the same generation, because time goes by fast, and everything changes following it faster and faster. Here comes the question. The narrators husband seems like no relation to the story, so why would not she skip this part rather than briefly describing what he did. I guess the main reason is the sake of the culture difference. They are grown up under different background, education and family, whatever. Though Nancy does not clearly states, I guess her husband is a Canadian. He was grown up undergoing the senses of equal rights. He behaves just like the character of the Canadian culture, outgoing and thoughtful. On the contrary, though Nancy was grown up in Canada, she stills lived in a typical single parent family and a half-Canadian-half-Chinese community. So, there are certain narrow and limited thoughts in her mind. She did not intend to blame her husband, while her husband did not intend to do so behind her back. Her husband must know her wife so much and he really cares the family with no prejudice to every family member. He knows Nancy is scared her mother being unequal treated or be cheated, but he really wants her mother-in-law to happy life in her end of the life. In my opinion, the demonstration of the narrators husband is indispensible, of course. It reveals the communication problem due to the culture shock and raises the readers attention why the narrators mother is so important that she is very

scared that any harm happens on her mother. And also, this part provides some hints for the latter paragraphs. Usually, we can get the brief information of the story after reading the first paragraphs or first part, but I still do not understand why the title of the story is called Red Bean Ice after a small recall of her husband and her. First, I clear my mind, what is Red Bean Ice. Red bean ice is a drink commonly found in Hong Kong. The standard ingredients include azuki beans, light rock sugar syrup, and milk. It is often topped with ice cream to become a dessert. Following the visit of narrator and her to daughter to China Center, I find the answer. Red Bean Ice is the memory carrier of her mother and father, and the symbol of narrators childhood with her mother. It means a lot to both Nancy and her mother. The narrators family has a car, but she chose to go with her daughter by bus. Taking bus to Chinatown seems very boring to her daughter, but it is really fun for Nancy herself, by referring the story. It seems like time dates back to her childhood. At that time, she usually took bus with her mother, and she mother always whispered to her. The melodic Cantonese is just like a beautiful song to her. And then they walked to different market to buy fruits and meats, and had some snacks and drinks. That is the first time Red Bean Ice appears in the story, talking about little Nancy listening to her mother and fathers story. She just wanted her daughter to experience what she had experienced before they reached her mothers home. At her mothers home, she tried to make more connection between her daughter and her mother. Latter, she was a little jealous, because her mother is Senile dementia and could not remember her. She is used to being called a nurse or doctor, her mothers best friend, but she is not used to the darkness in her mothers eyes when her mother thinks she is a stranger. However, her mother regarded her daughter as her. That would be really painful to the narrator. At last, before Nancy and her daughter had to go, she remembered some happy memory by watching her mother and her daughter sleeping happily together. These are how the narrator acts in different sections of the story. Though the Chinatown is kind of messy, it is a good place to the narrator, not only because of her mother living there, but also because of the childhood memory happened there. I think she is a good mother and a typical kind woman, though a little bit conservative. She does not want her mother to be hurt, so she blames her husband for finding the new place for her mother. She wants to see a united family, so she make a visit to China Center with her daughter, though she is not willing to and dislike that place. She tries her best to solve the generation gap and the communication problem due to the unfamiliar language for each other.

She wants her daughter to experience her past. What effort she did is just to making connection between the elder generation and the younger generation. And indeed, I can easily find out the answer for the worth or not in the story. The answer is absolute that visiting the China Center is a good idea. The narrators daughter enjoyed a really happy moment with her mother, and she herself also recalled some treasure memories. I am really touched by the final section of the section. Sometimes, taking a break in my busy and depressed life is a kind of relax for me. I go abroad alone for study for a long time. I always miss the life before and miss my parents. In my opinion, the author tries to establish a happy mood for the story end. I like the way the story ended, pretty much. As far as I am concerned, the conclusion is effective. Though it is a short story, it makes a great impression for readers. All the details in the story are seldom noticed in our daily life. All the people are busy studying and working, and the humans are getting greedy and chasing the power. Who will stop by to feel the truest emotion? Everyone may think that would be wasting time, or even killing the lives. Actually, after reading this story, I think most of the readers harvest a lot just like me. It recalls our treasure memory of my family, reveals the darkness of the society and the culture shock problems, and implies to relief the severe human relationship. When I am writing this review, I cannot help imagine how my life would be if my parents are around me. The feeling is just like wearing many clothes in the cold winter, very warm. I still clearly remember how I went through the setback 5 years ago. At that time, I failed to get the offer of my dream high school. I know I was a little lazy, and my parents knew that. I thought they would scold at me as usual when I did something wrong, and I thought I was the unhappiest one about losing the entry, and the failure. However, they did not. They chose another way to hold me up. They encouraged me every day, listened to me whatever I wanted to say, gave me confidence to get the latter success and analyzed the problem with me. I was really grateful of my dear father and my lovely mother. Without them, I do not even have a chance to study abroad right now. If I have only two options to choose, and I am the only one to make the decision, I will choose to take care of my parents myself when they are older, because there is nothing more than I accompanying with my parents when they are old. Every time I think about the early education that my parents gave to me, I think about everything that they sacrificed to me, I cannot help dropping tears. They mean a lot to me. So, after they are retired, I do not want to send them to a care facility. They have their own friendship network here, their own lives here,

and I do not want to be so selfish to send them away just because of the freedom of me. If I send them to the care facility, it will be very cruel to them and they have to adapt the new environment and meet new people. Life of that is really lonely. However, if I can choose the way of looking after my parents, I will choose to live with them, or let them live wherever they want, but hiring a medical staff member to care for them when I am busy or go to work.