The story shifts back to when Jack is 10, after his family has just moved into a new neighborhood. Afterward, Jack’s mother immigrated to the U.S. When he arrived, he learned that Jack’s mother spoke very little English, so he hired a translator to mediate between them. Jack’s father saw Jack’s mother in a catalogue and then flew to Hong Kong to meet her. His father explains that they met in Hong Kong through an introduction service that matched American men with Asian women. Once, when Jack is a teenager and is no longer speaking to his mother, he asks his father how he and Jack’s mother met. Later, she makes Jack more magical paper animals to play with. To comfort him, his mother makes him an origami tiger and breathes life into it. When the story begins, a young Jack is crying. “The Paper Menagerie” describes the relationship between a biracial Chinese American boy, Jack, and his Chinese immigrant mother.
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