“Wong Wan-Lee looked at Pearl Chang.
Peal Chang’s nose was like an almond seed.
Pearl Chang’s eyes were like an autumn stream.
Pearl Chang’s face was like a watermelon seed.
But Pearl Chang’s mouth was not like a little cherry and she had curly hair.”
–And China Has Hands pg. 100
Wong Wan-Lee and Pearl Chang were having tea when things start to get intimate. He steps back, looks at her and this stream of thoughts starts flowing. It is poetical, the way it is written and formatted like a stanza. Pearl Chang’s name is repeated in each line, conveying how Wong Wan-Lee is completely infatuated with Pearl Chang. This usage of anaphora in the quoted text is like a condensed version of what can be seen throughout the book with Wong Wan-Lee’s thoughts continuously going back to Pearl Chang throughout his day.
Alliteration and assonance are being used back-to-back. The words almond, autumn, watermelon begin with a lulled ‘aa’ sound and ends with a soft ‘uhn’. The last word of each sentence has long ‘ee’ vowels. It flows from starting with Pearl Chang to recurring vowel sounds, but ends abruptly with a sudden cut in the repeated sounds with the word ‘But’. The sentence then deviates from the path that the previous description of Pearl Chang had taken. The sentence structure and progression of the passage flows in tune with Wong Wan-Lee’s thoughts. Smooth, then taking a moment to notice differences and adding in new vowel sounds for every distinction.
H.T. Tsiang seems to focus on the rhythm of writing in a poetical sense. The prose has monosyllabic qualities that coincide with the themes of the book.