Lost Sister by Cathy Song

"You find you need China:/ Your one fragile identification,/ a jade link/ handcuffed to your wrist." (Part 2, paragraph 3, lines 1-4.)

This quote is from the poem Lost Sister by Cathy Song. Our English class read this poem together and we were assigned to explain what this poem reveals about our essential questions: Who Am I? How can my use of language help to develop self and voice?

The girl in this poem, Jade, first talks about her life in China and how her life there made her feel restrained and restricted. She then escapes this way of living by moving to America where she describes how it felt to be free and throws away her old life and old identity. Her victory is short lived as she begins to see the hardships of life in America and at the same time loses more and more of her Chinese heritage, a part of her identity.

Our experiences shaped who we are. The quote states how Jade realized that she couldn't just throw her past in China away. It was a part of who she was, something that would always mean something to her, metaphorically handcuffed to her wrist as a reminder or her roots. Our 'self' is created by everything we did, do, and will do in our lives and our past is a significant part of that.