The Year of the Dog

After a week at the Taiwanese American Convention (TAC), Melody’s family departs. In an art class, Pacy is ridiculed by a group of girls because she does not speak Chinese or Taiwanese. They insult her by calling her a “Twinkie […] Yellow on the outside but white on the inside” (101), implying that she acts “white” and is too Americanized to understand Taiwanese or Chinese culture. Fighting tears, Pacy moves away from the girls. When the teacher praises Pacy’s drawings, the girls show their picture of a twinkie.

Back at the hotel, Pacy sobs while her mom soothes her, and her dad visits the art teacher. Her mom recalls her first friend in the United States. When Pacy’s dad went to medical school, her mother was lonely and missed her family. In her college classes, she did not speak because she feared that her English was not good enough, and she cried every day. One day, Pacy’s mom heard a knock on the door and heard someone asking about her in Chinese. The girl, Mei, became Pacy’s mother’s best friend and helped her to acclimate to life in America by helping her to learn English, make friends, and study for classes.