Spring Moon represents the internal conflict of cultural identity as a Chinese-American. Lord moved with her family early in her life, and while in America, Mao Zedong rose to power, and the family could no longer return, but almost 30 years later, she did return, and upon reconvening with her family, and rediscovering the life she almost had, she wrote Spring Moon. With this in mind, the themes of loyalty to one's family and culture make total sense.
In one way, the novel is about the imposter feeling that comes when an immigrant has one foot in the future and one foot in the past, or one foot in the political philosophies of America, and one foot still in Chinese tradition. The effect can be kind of nauseating, and in the book, Spring Moon definitely gets the run-around, having to make a journey through different points of view before returning to the complexity of her family life in the changing Chinese economy.
In another way, it's a story of the self, and the path toward independence. It's not clear that any philosophy offered in the novel actually solves the problems of Spring Moon's sense of identity. That can only come from her own resilience and commitment to honor the past, even while she moves away from her tradition and its many restrictions.
