Despite being separated by several decades, the speaker of “Resurrection” and the Chinese woman on the photographs displayed outside the Historical Society exhibition nonetheless share a connection. As well as being women, they have the same ethnic identity. Of course, there are differences; the woman in the photograph would've had to have carried an identity card as all those of ethnic Chinese origin had to do at the time. But even so, the speaker is struck by the similarities between herself and the woman rather than the differences. And she derives comfort from them.

Through her photograph, the Chinese woman has become resurrected, her personhood no longer merely an historical artifact, but the foundation for a living connection with the past that joins the speaker to her ancestors. Among other things, this provides considerable comfort to the speaker as she negotiates the dark places of the big city, such as the subway station, with its “endless shadows”.

As the speaker can recognize something of herself in the Chinese woman's face, can see her identity reflected back at her, she no longer feels herself a stranger in the midst of such a large, impersonal city, where it's all too easy for one's identity to become submerged beneath the urban throng.