Assimilation - “Mrs. Spring Fragrance”
Poetry is the foremost influence in Mrs. Spring’s acclimatization: “When Mrs. Spring Fragrance received this message, her laughter tinkled like falling water. How droll! How delightful! Here was her husband quoting American poetry in a telegram. Perhaps he had been reading her American poetry books since she had left him! She hoped so.” The reference of American poetry deduces that the judgments expressed by the poet appeal to Mr. Spring. Mrs. Spring reads the poems to acclimatize herself with the American philosophy. It is as a result of the assimilation that Mrs. Spring does not sponsor the idea of Laura’s arranged matrimonial. Assimilation changes Mrs. Spring’s ideology regarding the unimportance of approved Chinese practices.
Race - “Its Wavering Image”
Pan’s conception of her race relates to her communal setting: “As to Pan, she always turned from whites. With her father's people she was natural and at home; but in the presence of her mother's she felt strange and constrained, shrinking from their curious scrutiny as she would from the sharp edge of a sword.” Although Pan is white, the white quota of her DNA does not elicit involuntary fascination with the whites. Pan’s repugnance by the whites designates that her hereditary anatomy does not decree which race she elects to identify with. Evidently, she feels ordinary among the Chinese because they do not classify her in the same way that whites would. Sui Sun accentuates the social implication of race through Pan’s proclivity.
