it. Initially, Jing-mei liked the idea of being a prodigy.  She understood that if she became perfect that her parents would love and adore her.

Her personality’s traits are illustrated throughout the story:

Impatient

Jing-mei tires of her mother trying to make her into something that she is not.  She asks her mother why she is not happy with her.  Her mother slaps her and tells that she is ungrateful. 

Resentful

Eventually, her mother decides that she should become a pianist prodigy.  She hires a retired piano teacher and a piano on which to practice in her apartment.  The teacher will give Jing-mei lessons and the mother will clean his house for him in return.

Her revenge is to take advantage of her piano lessons. Jing-mei was clever and immediately understood why the piano teacher had retired.  He was completely deaf.  She tried sometimes, but other times she would make him think that she was practicing. Really, she was just playing whatever came into her head.

After a year of abusing the piano lessons, the teacher and mother decided that she should enter a talent contest.    She did not learn the piece; however, she did practice the curtsey at the end.

When Jing-mei began to play at the contest, her performance was ridiculous.  Her mother was embarrassed. Jing-mei figured that she was done with piano lessons.  The next day her mother told her to practice.

Obstinate

Jing-mei tells her mother that she will not play the piano anymore.

Her mother yanks her up by her arm and puts her on the piano bench. 

Her mother tells her that there are only two kinds of daughters: one who obeys and one who does not.  Only one kind could live in her house: an obedient daughter.

Jing-mei lashes back angrily:

Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter.  I wish you weren’t my mother. I wish I’d never been born. I wish I were dead! Like them!

Referring to her mother's twin daughters that were killed in China, Jing-mei struck a chord with her mother, who turned and left the room. Piano lessons were never mentioned again.

As she grew up, Jing-mei admits that she sometimes did not do well on tests or other things because she wanted to hurt her mother.  She disappointed her mother frequently. 

Mature

When she was thirty, her mother gave her the piano.  The mother told her it belonged to her and said that she had natural talent and could have been a genius if she had wanted to be.

After her mother died, Jing-mei had the piano tuned.  She sat down to see if she could still play.  She played the song for her contest easily, noticing that its name was “Pleading Child” and the opposite page was the other half of the song, “Perfectly Contented.”  She understood that this song was the two halves of the song and also represented life with her mother. 

As is often the case of children who are born of immigrants, the American-born child resists the imposition of cultural values from the "old country" that parents wish to impose. in "Two Kinds," Jing-mei locks herself into a struggle with her mother over her self-identity and becomes passively resistance to her mother's desire for her to be "a prodigy"; that is, a success at some skill. And, it is only after her mother's death that Jing-mei realizes that her mother simply wished for a respectful and dutiful daughter in the Chinese tradition.

In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations.

This passage is intrinsic to the conflict between the Chinese mother and her Chinese-American daughter. However, at first she is complaisant and is "just as excited as [her] mother" about becoming a prodigy. For, she imagines that when she becomes perfect, her parents will love her even more--"adore me." However, after taking test after test, and Jing-mei begins to fail, she begins to assert her own will and decides that she will not "be what I'm not" because she resists failure in a passive way by not trying.

But, just as it seems that her mother starts to give up hope for Jing-mei's becoming a prodigy, one night Mother Woo watches a little Chinese girl playing the piano on the Ed Sullivan Show on the television; she calls to her daughter to watch. Then, three days later, Jing-mei is informed that she will begin piano lessons with Mr. Chong. Still, Jing-mei remains defiant:

"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!"

Slapping her disrespectful daughter, the mother retorts that she does not want a genius, muttering to herself in Chinese about how ungrateful her daughter is. Jing-mei remains resistant, "determined not to try, not to be anybody different." Always, she fails to understand that in accord with her Chinese culture, the mother just wants a daughter to be proud of. It is only when she performs so badly at the recital and embarrasses herself and her parents that Jing-mei understands, "I felt the shame of my mother and father as they sat stiffly through the rest of the show." But, they do not let anyone else know their feelings as the sit stoically through the remainder of the performances.

Afterwards, Jing-mei observes her mother's expression: "a quiet blank look that said she had lost everything. I felt the same way." Nevertheless, the proud mother will not let her daughter settle for this defeat; instead, she tells the daughter after two days that she must practice the piano. Jing-mei screams," You want me to be something that I'm not!"

"Only two kinds of daughters," she [the mother] shouted in Chinese. "Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!"

Despite her mother's impassioned words, Jing-mei remains defiant, causing her mother to lose hope. Years pass; on her thirtieth birthday, Mother Woo gives her daughter the piano. Somehow, this offer makes Jing-mei feel proud, as though she has won back a trophy. After her mother dies, she has the piano tuned and turns to it. She finds Schumann's two pieces, "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented." As she plays both melodies, she realizes that they are complementary. With her musical insight, Jing-mei recognizes truly the character of her mother as well as of herself and realizes that both songs of pleading and contentment are irreplaceable parts of life's journey. But, it was the unrealistic expectations demanded of her by her mother that effected Jing-mei's hostility and defiance.

I am going to assume that "her character" is the narrator herself rather than Jing-mei making comments that help us understand a different character. I think that a reader would be hard-pressed to pick a single statement that encompasses the depth of character that is Jing-mei. I recommend picking a few quotes that help develop her as a character. For example, the following quote is a good quote.

In fact, in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, and I tried each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing by the curtain, waiting to hear the music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity. I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air.

This is a good quote because it shows that Jing-mei wants to do right by her mother. She wants to please her family. It also shows that Jing-mei does desire the fame and recognition on some level. She is a dreamer, and she can see the magic and power that exists in becoming these idealized people. Jing-mei was even willing to work for it, and that shows readers she is dedicated.

What changes is who Jing-mei is willing to work for. She tries over and over again to become what her mother desires, and she repeatedly disappoints her mom. Eventually, Jing-mei brings her own stubborn will to the forefront, and readers get a great quote that shows us exactly how strong, fierce, and dedicated Jing-mei sees herself.

And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me—a face I had never seen before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. She and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts—or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not.

Notice how Jing-mei admits that the child prodigy part exists within her. The difference is now that Jing-mei is going to follow her own dreams rather than her mother's dreams, and Jing-mei fiercely defends her new path.