one of her friend's daughters. The narrator recalls these events after a period of more than twenty years and still struggles to understand her mother's motivations.

While one can understand Jing-mei's mother desiring her daughter to be someone important, it is obvious that Jing-mei's mother puts too much pressure on her daughter. She pushes her daughter to play the piano when in fact Jing-mei has come to detest playing the piano. She does not apply herself. She rebels against her mother's wishes. There is a constant battle going on between Jing-mei and her mother. Possibly, Jing-mei's mother should have just given up on the idea of Jing-mei playing the piano. If a child is not interested in playing the piano, it is not worth the battle or struggle that it will take to keep up the piano lessons. Jing-mei's mother should have allowed her daughter to make a decision about finding a hobby that would help shape her own identity.

Even after Jing-mei embarrasses her mother at the piano recital, Jing-mei's mother insists that the piano lessons are continued. Only after Jing-mei hurts her mother by saying she wishes she had been a child left behind in China do the piano lessons stop:

Such a cruel and hurtful statement silences her mother and ends the piano lessons for good.

Finally, Jing-mei can find her own way in life. Often parents put too much pressure on their children. Jing-mei's mother is no exception. She pushes her daughter too far. She actually makes her daughter despise playing the piano. She is an overbearing mother who did not recognize how wonderful her daughter was just being herself. She should have accepted her daughter as she was. Instead, she forced her daughter to be someone she had imagined from the celebrity television shows and magazine articles.

In "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, the narrator's mother is determined that her daughter become a noted prodigy in some—any—skill. She is forced to attempt to master random skills such as acting, memorization, and headstands before her mother finally decides to empty all her efforts into her daughter's ability to play piano.

Mr. Chong lives in their building, and her mother trades housekeeping for piano lessons and the ability to practice on his piano every evening for two hours.

Unfortunately, Mr. Chong is an older retired teacher, and neither his sight nor his hearing is what it once was. The narrator determines that she can hit the occasional wrong note, but as long as she maintains the beat or covers it up, he never seems to notice.

This finally catches up with her at a recital; she is supposed to memorize the piece but confesses, "I dawdled over it, playing a few bars and then cheating, looking up to see what notes followed. I never really listened to what I was playing. I daydreamed about being somewhere else."

Everyone at the recital is wide-eyed in disbelief after her poor performance, and she even hears a young boy whisper, "That was awful."

Although piano is not her idea and her mother pushes her to excel, by not practicing as she was supposed to, her mother ends up wasting all the hours she spent doing Mr. Chong's housekeeping in exchange for his time.

Jing-Mei's mother is fiercely ambitious for her daughter. She believes her to be a musical prodigy who will one day become a world-famous pianist. There's just one problem: piano lessons are very expensive, and Jing-Mei's mother is by no means rich. But Jing-Mei's mother is nothing if not determined, and she's prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure that her daughter receives the appropriate tuition.

She enlists the help of one of her neighbors, a retired piano teacher by the name of Mr. Chong. In return for piano lessons for her daughter, Jing-Mei's mother agrees to clean Mr. Chong's apartment. On the surface, it seems like a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Chong is actually deaf and so can't hear Jing-Mei play. As a result, she never learns to play the piano properly.

The mother of Jing-Mei is shown to be obsessed by making her daughter a prodigy from the outset thanks to the new opportunities that living in America gave both to her and her family. As a result, it was only natural that she should want the best for her children, and desire them to exploit such opportunities, that she had never had, to the full. It is clear however that she does this to an extreme, pushing her daughter to become a prodigy in various different areas. What drives her to encourage Jing-Mei to be a pianist is watching a TV programme showing a young Chinese girl playing the piano:

"Ni kan," my mother said, calling me over with hurried hand gestures. "Look here." I could see why my mother was fascinated by the music. It was being pounded out by a little Chinese girl, about nine years old, with a Peter Pan haircut. The girl had the sauciness of a Shirley Temple. She was proudly modest, like a proper Chinese Child. And she also did a fancy sweep of a curtsy, so that the fluffy skirt of her white dress cascaded to the floor like petals of a large carnation.

Of course, the mother is so impressed by this little Chinese girl's skill and obvious dedication to her piano playing, that she immediately seizes upon the idea that Jing-Mei can be a piano prodigy. It is this that sets in motion the course of events that culminates in the overt conflict between Jing-Mei and her mother when she insists on being given the chance to fail and live her own life the way that she wants to.