The Chosen and the Beautiful

Jordan quickly says goodbye to Nick the next morning and heads to the address Khai has given her, which is in Chinatown. She usually avoids that part of the city because it brings up the conflicting feelings of wanting nothing to do with a racial stereotype, whilst simultaneously desiring to be recognized by people of her race. Jordan cannot help feeling uneasy with the approach of the Manchester Act and the riots that surround it.

At the club, Jordan feels that she is being looked at “with various degrees of curiosity and hostility” (185). She says that Khai has invited her and that she knows nothing about her culture or the kind of club this is. She drinks profusely while Khai and his troupe of paper-cutting performers come in. A woman called Bai who looks like a less groomed version of Jordan says that Tonkin is a colonial name and that their country ought to be called Vietnam. She also tries to explain one of the country’s founding myths, the union of a mountain goddess and a sea king. Bai gives Jordan a pair of scissors, and she begins a clumsy paper cutting.