What talents does Jing-mei's mother make her try in "Two Kinds"?
In “Two Kinds,” author Amy Tan presents several different talents, all of which Jing-mei’s mother wants Jing-mei to try and develop in order to gain renown and “face” within the Chinese community.
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. ... You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.
Fame (even more than money, although material riches would be nice, too) is the ultimate goal of talent. Jing-mei’s mother wants her to be a whiz kid in order to compete with Waverly, the similarly aged Chinese American daughter of her friend Auntie Lindo. Waverly is “Chinatown's Littlest Chinese Chess Champion.”
“Of course, you can be a prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine. “You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.”
Deception (being “tricky”) is a talent, but not one...
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Jing-mei’s mother values highly. Instead, she makes Jing-mei try to discover her own talent in performing arts, academics, and other areas.
First, the mother wants Jing-mei to become a “Chinese Shirley Temple.” After studying Shirley Temple’s movies on television “as though they were training films,” the mother suggests that her daughter try tap dancing, singing, acting (e.g., mugging cutely), and even crying. She soon realizes, however, that trying to look like Shirley Temple is hopeless for a Chinese girl. In fact, after her mother takes Jing-mei to a local beauty training school for hairstyling by a student, the result is a disaster: an attempt at creating curls leaves Jing-mei’s naturally straight Asian hair looking like “crinkly black fuzz.” Her mother is aghast that Jing-mei appears as if she were a “Negro Chinese.”
Jing-mei’s mother then makes her daughter try more academic talents—only these scholastic skills are memorization rather than analysis or critical thinking. After reading about a three-year-old boy who is able to recite the capitals of every state and most European countries, Jing-mei's mother wants her to become a trivia genius. She quizzes her daughter on geography and Bible facts. She also asks the girl for math facts, requiring Jing-mei to multiply numbers in her head.
Jing-mei’s mother also makes her try more unusual talents. She wants Jing-mei to predict daily temperatures in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, and London. One could argue that this “talent” combines knowledge of science and a bit of luck. Her mother even wants Jing-mei to attempt stage magic, like “finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards.”
The only athletic or physical talent Jing-mei’s mother promotes is executing a headstand, where Jing-mei tries “to stand on [her] head without using [her] hands.”
The talent that Jing-mei’s mother settles on is playing the piano. After spotting a young Chinese pianist on the famous variety television show TheEd Sullivan Show, she entreats her daughter to start playing. The performer on television combines both traditional and modern attributes while donning a “Peter Pan haircut.” Jing-mei says,
The girl had the sauciness of a Shirley Temple. She was proudly modest like a proper Chinese child.
Jing-mei’s mother forces Jing-mei to take weekly piano lessons from a man called Old Chong and to practice every day for two hours. Jing-mei fails to develop her piano talent but cultivates a talent for deception. When she realizes Old Chong is deaf, she becomes “best tricky” and
learned I could be lazy and get away with mistakes, lots of mistakes. If I hit the wrong notes because I hadn't practiced enough, I never corrected myself; I just kept playing in rhythm. And Old Chong kept conducting his own private reverie.
Although she fools her teacher, Jing-mei reveals her lack of talent at a talent show; she performs miserably, causing her parents (especially her mother) to lose “face.”
What failures did Jing-mei experience as her mother explored her talents in "Two Kinds?"
Jing-mei fails memory tests, and at the piano.
The first tests Jing-mei fails are memory tests. Some of them are a little silly.
The tests got harder - multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
She is also supposed to memorize the Bible, and gets not much of it at all. Jing-mei is dejected, saying, "I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations." She feels that she is ugly and worthless. It is a terrible thing for a young girl to feel so unimportant, especially when she really hasn’t been given a chance.
Her mother is disappointed, but does not give up. Deciding that her daughter will not be a genius, she decides to move on to talent. After watching the Ed Sullivan Show, she decides that Jing-mei is going to learn to play the piano. Jing-mei is frustrated.
"Why don't you like me the way I am?" I cried. "I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!"
Her mother gets frustrated. She tells her that she does not need to be a genius, but only learn to play the piano. She mutters under her breath about her daughter’s temper. In fact, Jing-mei never really gets very far with the piano. Mr. Chong, the neighbor her mother is trading cleaning services for piano lessons with, is basically deaf, and he does not know that she is not really learning.
Mothers and daughters rarely see eye to eye, and this is a story about failed communication as well as failed expectations. Jing-mei does not realize that her mother really wants her to succeed at being a prodigy because she wants her to have a better life than she had. She just wants her to learn the value of hard work. It is unfortunately a skill that Jing-mei takes a long time to learn.