The Family Chao

James is the youngest Chao son and one of the primary, point of view characters in the novel. The community perceives James as the least troubled of the Chao sons, protected by his brothers, sheltered by his mother, “studious and agreeable” (219). He is naïve, soft-hearted, compliant, and feels loyalty to all of his family.

James represents the son who is least attached to or identified by his Chinese heritage. His Chinese name is Li Huan, but he can’t pronounce it, having lost his Mandarin when he was still young. Of all the sons, James demonstrates the most filial piety. When the story opens, James is in a premed program at a California university, studying to be a doctor because he believes that is what his parents and his community expect of him. While he often has good intentions, James is easily intimidated and distracted, as indicated by his loss of the old man’s carpetbag.

James’s sexual relationship with Alice reflects his loss of innocence throughout the novel. When he first returns to Haven, James has had no sexual experience. Attracted to Alice, he begins a sexual relationship with her that shifts his perception of the world, making him more aware of passionate relationships between other people. James wishes not to hurt anyone and he retreats when confronted. Even when he discovers O-Lan is responsible for a his father’s death, James finds himself unable to prevent her from leaving, since he can understand why she feels as she does. Because of this empathy, Leo claims James is the only one of his children who loves him. James feels partly responsible for his father’s death, and at the end of the novel, this guilt keeps him in Haven, unsure of what his future holds, tending to the restaurant to try to make things up to Dagou.

Dagou, whose English name is William, is the eldest of the Chao sons and another primary, point-of-view character. Positioned as a contrast and foil to Leo, Dagou lacks his father’s assertive personality and is instead a sensitive man who plays the bass and went to New York to try and launch a career as a musician. The narrator describes Dagou as physically imposing, like his father. Since he fell in love with Brenda, he has been gaining weight, and after Leo’s death he grows even larger, suggesting he uses food to cope with stress. James thinks of Dagou as “charismatically uncombed and unshaven, loquacious and needy” but he is a gifted chef who can cast “extraordinary spells of pungent, savory magic in the restaurant kitchen” (44). Thirty-three at the time of the main action, Dagou is “not a rich man, not even a good man; only a man who is, for [Brenda], willing to entirely give over his life” (117). He knows his family thinks he is lazy and disorganized, but “his heart is Winnie’s. Her lavishness, her extravagance flowing from a need to share, to please, and to heal” (125).

Dagou loves his mother and returned home when she became ill six years prior to the action of the story. He has ambitions to run the restaurant as a partner with Leo, mostly motivated by his wish to provide financial security to Brenda, since she wishes to marry a rich man. Easily ruled by his emotions, Dagou feels the need to broadcast his distress, which he does by acquiring radio equipment and hosting a pirated radio show. That he does so without a license shows that Dagou does not always feel the need to abide by moral or legal codes. Dagou, unlike his father, is a nurturing sort. He takes care of and looks out for James, affectionately calling him Snaggle, and he isn’t able to physically hurt another person, though he makes threats when moved by strong emotion. In the end, Dagou accepts his prison sentence because he believes he should be punished for his desire to kill Leo even if he didn’t put it into action. Even in prison, he is still ruled by desire for Brenda, suggesting that he equates her with a sense of stability and comfort.

Ming, the second of the Chao sons and another point of view character, is introduced as “Ming the Merciless” (10). He is described as having “the Chaos’ intense physicality, with the greyhound leanness and the aerodynamic way he carries himself” (11). His Chinese name is Ergou. Ming is six years older than James and has a job in New York City that is lucrative and requires him to travel often. Ming believes once he has financial security, his worries will be much less. Although Ming is attractive and well-dressed, James observes “beneath his superiority and charisma, his hyper-competence, his high achievements, there exist[s] this inconsolable self-hatred” (97).

Ming has a conflicted relationship to his heritage—he’s has made an effort to retain and practice his Mandarin, speaking it with O-Lan, but in other ways he works hard to separate himself from his Chinese heritage since his connection to his Chinese culture feels inextricable from his fraught relationship to his parents. As a child, Ming felt frightened and hurt by his mother’s pain at Leo’s lack of sexual fidelity and his tendency to belittle her. Ming was also bullied by other children for being Chinese, causing him to fantasize about getting away from Haven and having white parents. As an adult, Ming refuses to eat Chinese food or date Asian women because he wants to thoroughly assimilate with white culture. Guarded in his feelings, Ming has an aura of “conventionality and exactitude” (153) and is prone to worry. He is attracted to Katherine and depends on her, but exasperated by Katherine’s loyalty to the Chao family. He thinks Dagou stupid, James naïve, and Leo cruel.

Ming experiences the most intense internal crisis of the three Chao brothers, experiencing mental health issues that begin during the first Christmas when he is driving back to Wisconsin after a snowstorm. Under the influence of too much caffeine and lack of sleep, Ming has a psychotic episode over the idea that he is still connected to Leo and partly responsible for his murder, as he was not there to intervene. Ming’s arc finds him medicated and recovering as the novel ends, embracing a life in Haven to work at the restaurant. Ming, in some ways the most perceptive brother, is also the one who guesses O-Lan murdered Leo.

Winnie, an important secondary character, is the matriarch of the Chao family whom the narrator describes as its heart. While she showed affection to her sons, she always bowed to Leo in his discipline and demands. Winnie worked hard at the restaurant, sharing Leo’s dream of prosperity, but she is far more soft-hearted and caring. Even when Leo behaves badly, Winnie insists that her sons show him respect as their father, counseling Dagou to apologize after his angry outburst.

Winnie was a practicing Christian during her time in the United States but before the story opens she has withdrawn to the Spiritual House where a group of women devoted to living as Buddhist nuns. In search of tranquility, Winnie’s care for others manifests in her acceptance of Katherine, going so far to give her annual Christmas gifts, and in her insistence that Leo help provide for O-Lan when Winnie learns O-Lan in Leo’s daughter. Winnie has strong morals but poor health. Her passing makes her sons sad but does not impact them as deeply as the death of their father.

Katherine, a supporting character, serves as a foil to the Chao sons in her relationship to the family. Adopted from an orphanage in Sichuan, China, and raised by white parents, Katherine approaches Chinese culture as exotic and different. As a character, she embodies the novel’s thematic interest in Being Both Insider and Outsider to one’s cultural heritage. She met Dagou in college and has been dating him for 12 years, though the Chaos think of her as too good for Dagou: “Too smart for him, too attractive, too accomplished, and too good” (12).

Katherine is successful in her job in Chicago, but she refuses to accept that Dagou is in love with Brenda and wants to break up with Katherine. Committed to the idea of their engagement, she continues wearing the jade ring Dagou gave her, denying his requests that she return it. Ming accuses Katherine of clinging to the Chaos because she fetishizes Chinese culture and is trying to create or claim a Chinese identity. Her loyalty to the Chao family shows in how she helps with the Christmas party at the restaurant and works with Dagou’s lawyer to prepare his legal defense. Although she’s attracted to Ming, Katherine feels confused about expressing affection for him because of her long association with Dagou. At the end of the novel, her future, like that of many other characters, remains uncertain.