I like to read my books at the kitchen table because the west-facing window provides ample light, more so than my own bedroom. So when I put down The Concubine's Children to clear the table because dinner was ready, my mother saw the book cover of the novel. "This woman's very pretty," my mother commented about May-ying's picture of the front cover.

May-ying is dressed in formal and elegant attire, the chong sam. I know the dress is formal because my mother owns three and has only worn each once, on the most special occasions. May-ying is confident and it shows in her eyes-they are very determined. She looks into the camera with a piercing stare rather than a coy, innocent gaze. Her portrait is like the Mona Lisa: Her eyes follow you around. But unlike the Mona Lisa, she doesn't set you at ease. In fact, it looks like she's burning her eyes into me like she knows what I'm thinking, judging me. This thought is compounded by the fact that her mouth is taut in a smirk. The back cover shows the picture of Nan and Ping and Hing dressed as a boy. The portrait of May-ying, however, is the only photograph that kind of irks me. As someone mentioned in class, she's ghostly. Such a determined woman wandering as a spirit is not an idea to be embraced readily.

The colour red is used often in Chinese artwork and on special occasions because it symbolizes happiness. It is customary for Chinese families to give gold jewelry to the bride. Given that the background colour of the book cover is both red and gold, I was at first lead to believe the photograph of May-ying was her wedding portrait.

I think the faded edges of the photographs are the result of careless handling, of not seeing the importance of one's family represented in photograph form. Another reason I believe may be to arouse mystery. What I mean is perhaps the book jacket designer decided to purposely fade the edges to symbolize Denise Chong's unknown Chinese history: If Chong does not reveal her true history, it may be too late and the images of her past will, like the photographs, fade away. Like Chong wrote, China was only known as what was left behind by her pregnant grandmother, the soil underfoot the photograph of Nan and Ping, dug deep enough, the other side of the Earth.

I perceive Denise Chong as highly westernized. Her author photography pictures her with minimalist makeup, hairstyle, and (lack of) clothing. Perhaps this photograph of Chong goes along with the idea that she was brought up with western ideals and influences, as illustrated in the lettering of the book title. Instead of using Chinese lettering or stokes, the designers went block lettering, highly conventional in western books. This would add to the discussion above to the idea that Chong's past would fade away if she did not break from her North American life to recover her lost family.