Tang Ao

The protagonist of "On Discovery" is Tang Ao, a Chinese adventurer on a quest for wealth in Gold Mountain (America). Instead of finding Gold Mountain, he stumbles upon the Land of Women, where he is captured and transformed into a woman. His feet are bound, his ears pierced, his facial hair removed, and his face painted. Through this metamorphosis, Tang Ao realizes that one can "discover" new places and ideas without the need for domination. The story "On Discovery" is inspired by an early nineteenth-century Chinese novel by Li Ru-zhen titled Flowers in the Mirror. In the original tale, Tang Ao is a scholar traveling the world to find and rescue twelve flower fairies who have been exiled from the Heavenly Court.

Narrator

The narrator of "On Discovery" is a trickster, much like many of Kingston's narrators, who plays with the reader by being ambiguous about the story's genre and narrative. This trickster narrator allows the author to present multiple versions of a story simultaneously, thereby challenging the authority of the canonical, or widely accepted, versions. The narrator begins "On Discovery" with the traditional fairy tale opening: "Once upon a time." They then recount the fantastical tale of Tang Ao, an explorer, being captured in the Land of Women, while nudging the reader to interpret it as a fairy tale.

At the story's conclusion, however, the narrator abruptly suggests that the tale might be a true history by presenting "facts" in the form of dates, rulers, and geographic locations. The narrator hints that the Land of Women might not be mythical after all, stating: "Some scholars say that the country was discovered during the reign of Empress Wu (A.D. 694-705), and some say earlier than that, A.D. 441, and it was in North America." The narrator offers a historical basis for the narrative but provides several historical options—was it a fairy tale, did it occur during Empress Wu's reign, or did it happen in the fifth century? Who are the sources claiming different things, and how can readers discern which one to trust? Empress Wu is a historical Chinese ruler; however, as Ning Yu notes in an essay in College Literature, "two of the three dates that Kingston cites here are inaccurate, and deliberately so." The authority and reliability of Kingston's trickster narrator are questionable, prompting readers to question the story's authenticity.

The Women

A group of women from the Land of Women capture, undress, chain, pierce, pluck, paint, and bind Tang Ao. Kingston does not specify the exact number of women involved in transforming Tang Ao, but her descriptions highlight that these women are strong, independent, and joyful. At one point, a woman jokes about sewing Tang Ao's lips together, causing the others to laugh. They try to soothe Tang Ao's distress by singing traditional footbinding songs. The women are quite satisfied with their work, declaring that Tang Ao looks very pretty.