The vegan crisis
Lindsey is a lot of different people it seems. For instance, at home, she is experienced through her grandmother's strictly Chinese cultural assumptions, but then Lindsey is perceived very differently at work or with her friends. This duality has some ethical implications because each community has different rules, and she quietly breaks those rules in order to make her way in life. This is best symbolized by her job at a vegan magazine. She works there under the pretense that she is a vegan like the rest of the magazine, but secretly, she still eats meat.
The matriarchal tradition
Lindsey's grandmother is a character, but she is also a living symbol. She symbolizes the tradition that she upholds. Her tradition is like a grandmother to Lindsey. It is old, and she loves it with a sense of honor and duty. She wants to be approved of within the domain of her tradition, but just as with a grandmother, there are parts of life that are much different than what the tradition was built for. Just as Lindsey cannot live a happy healthy life by only obeying her grandmother's interests, so also she must handle life's changes as they come.
The love interest
For Lindsey, the general policy is that she does not ruffle any feathers unless she actually has to do it. But, not every issue is worth having a serious conversation with her family. Some are more important than others. When Lindsey starts to feel attracted to Michael Cartier, that has the potential to ruffle her grandmother's feathers. Lindsey's grandmother keeps trying to set her up with other Chinese people so that Lindsey will stay thoroughly Chinese in her future family, but Lindsey does not have that sort of attachment to the Chinese way of life. She is attracted to whoever she happens to be attracted to. This symbolizes her imminent conflict with tradition.
The trip to China
As if to complicate matters further, there is this symbolic trip to China. Her grandmother invites Lindsey to come with her to China to meet the family and experience their homelands. The trip has a profound effect on Lindsey's life, because now Chinese culture is a real part of her experience of life. It is not just something that her mother maintains. It is a real memory that Lindsey has formed. This ensures that no matter where she goes in terms of culture, she will always have China in her identity.
Duty and honor
There is a clear motif in this novel related to one's duty to family to preserve the cultural heritage they inherit. This has to do with one's honor, because to abandon the community's way of life is to abandon the honor attached to preserving it. The question is a specific kind of conservative/progressive dilemma. Lindsey demonstrates this by honoring her culture at home, but then when she is out and about, she honors the culture she sees there. She is unique for honoring both a local and a traditional culture simultaneously.
