Eat a Bowl of Tea

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-22

Chapters 23-35

Chapters 36-43

Chapters 44-57

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains depictions of sexual assault and intimate partner violence, as well as anti-Chinese racism.

Ben Loy, a Chinese American immigrant, wakes up in his tiny New York apartment next to his new wife, Mei Oi. He begins kissing her passionately but is soon filled with a sense of dread and stops. Mei wonders why he has stopped making love to her like he did in the first weeks of their marriage. Ben realizes the buzzing sound is the doorbell. At the door is a young American sex worker who he has seen many times in the past. He points to his wife’s underwear hanging in the kitchen and tells her to leave.

Chapter 2 Summary

Several months earlier, Ben Loy’s father, Wah Gay, sits with his friends in the Money Come clubhouse, which he owns. The Money Come clubhouse has become a refuge for Chinatown’s bachelor community, including Wah Gay’s friend Lee Gong, who came to the US with him as a teenager and was his first roommate. In his twenties, Lee Gong went back to China briefly to get married; his daughter Mei Oi was born shortly after he returned to the US. Because of strict immigration laws, he has been unable to return since. The men begin a game of mah-jongg, swearing raucously.

Chapter 3 Summary

A few days later, Ben Loy delivers a letter to his father at the Money Come club. After the patrons have left, Wah Gay reads the letter alone in his small room in the back of the club. He expects that his wife, Lau Shee, has written to ask for money and is surprised when she asks him to send Ben Loy back to Sunwei, China, to find a wife. She reminds him that it has been over 20 years since he was in China. Wah Gay feels guilty about leaving his wife and has difficulty sleeping.

Chapter 4 Summary

The next day, Lee Gong is waiting at the door when Wah Gay opens the Money Come club. Lee Gong asks Wah Gay about the man who delivered the letter the previous day, pretending not to know that he was Wah Gay’s son. Lee Gong’s wife, Jung Shee, has been writing, asking him to find a husband in the US for their daughter, Mei Oi. Wah Gay confirms that Ben Loy is his son and tells Lee Gong that he is 24 and has a good job. Privately, Wah Gay thinks that any woman would be lucky to marry Ben Loy.

Chapter 5 Summary

Ben Loy began his job at the China Pagoda in Stanton, Connecticut, at the age of 18, one year after arriving in the US. His father sent him to Stanton because he believed New York would be a corrupting influence. Ben Loy worked there for two years before being drafted into the Second World War; he returned after his service. Lee Gong secretly visits Ben Loy at work, asking his cousin, the restaurant’s owner, questions about his personality. Ben Loy is polite, hoping to earn a tip. Lee Gong finds Ben Loy to be a good match for his daughter.

Chapter 6 Summary

The next day, Lee Gong arrives at the Money Come club early to talk to Wah Gay. He proposes marrying Mei Oi and Ben Loy. Wah Gay is pleased that his friend considers Ben Loy a viable son-in-law. He reminds Lee Gong that they cannot force their children to marry but agrees to send Ben Loy back to Sunwei in order to meet Mei Oi. Privately, he thinks that if Ben Loy doesn’t like her, he can just choose another woman. He writes to his wife, relieved to have good news.

Chapter 7 Summary

The narrative moves back six years to 1942, shortly after Ben Loy began working at Pagoda House. One night, when the restaurant was closed by a snowstorm, Ben Loy’s roommate, Chin Yuen, convinced him to take a train to New York City. Chin Yuen brings Ben Loy to a hotel in midtown and arranges to meet a white sex worker. Ben Loy has sex with her after Chin Yuen finishes. The next time Ben Loy has a free night, he returns to the hotel and has sex with another sex worker. He repeats this pattern so often, the men secretly move to New York.

Chapter 8 Summary

Although he hasn’t heard from his wife, Wah Gay senses Lee Gong is impatient and summons Ben Loy to tell him about the proposed marriage. Ben Loy worries that his father has learned about his visits with sex workers. Wah Gay introduces the idea of marriage without mentioning Mei Oi. Ben Loy resists the idea at first but agrees when he learns that he will be able to bring his new wife home with him. He returns to his secret apartment in New York and waits for a sex worker.

Chapter 9 Summary

A few months later, Ben Loy sets sail for China with money from his father. Wah Gay is gratified to be able to provide for his son and relieved that his responsibility as a parent is almost over. Although Ben Loy plans to bring his new wife back to the US, Wah Gay secretly hopes she stays in China to care for her new mother-in-law in her final years. His wife, Lau Shee, is a sympathetic woman who prays for her husband daily. Wah Gay gives her instructions for the dowry and hopes she is pleased with his decision.

Chapter 10 Summary

A few weeks after he arrives in the village of Sun Lung Lay, Ben Loy and his mother, Lau Shee, prepare to meet Mei Oi with a matchmaker at a local market. Ben Loy is immediately taken with Mei Oi, who is beautiful and smart yet modest. Her parents sent her to an English school, hoping that she would marry a gimshunhock, a Chinese native living in the US. Ben Loy is eager to agree to the marriage, but Lau Shee insists they consult birth charts to make sure the match is good.

Chapters 1-10 Analysis

This section of Eat a Bowl of Tea has a nonlinear narrative structure. The novel begins in 1948, two months after the marriage of Ben Loy and Mei Oi. The second chapter, however, takes place “several months before the wedding” (9), and subsequent chapters move back and forth through time through memories of individual characters. This non-linear structure is made possible through the use of a third-person omniscient narrator that moves between the perspectives of the novel’s major characters, such as Ben Loy, Wah Gay, and Lee Gong. The narrative sometimes changes temporarily to the first person. In Chapter 3, for example, the narrator offers a glimpse into Wah Gay’s thoughts, shifting from third to first person: “It was in 1923 that he went back to China to get married…this is the year 1948. Twenty five springs to be exact, since I left the village” (18). The ellipsis in the middle of this passage indicates a switch from third person to first, and the narrative continues in first person as Wah Gay thinks about his wife. A similar ellipsis at the end of this chapter signals the end of Wah Gay’s first-person narration and a return to the third person: “Women are like that. They want to become grandmothers…Wah Gay reread the letter again” (18). This brief shift into first-person narration offers direct insight into a character’s thought process. In this instance, it reveals Wah Gay’s complicated feelings about leaving his wife and finding a wife for his son.

The first chapter of Eat a Bowl of Tea introduces the primary protagonists, Wang Ben Loy and his wife Mei Oi. Ben Loy’s character flaws are immediately identified, while Mei Oi is presented in a way that conflicts with her later characterization. In the first chapter, Ben Loy compares the “dignity” (6) of the Chinese-born Mei Oi to the “filthy, diseased” (6) American sex workers that he is later revealed to have an extensive history with. The thought of these sex workers brings “a chill of frustration” (6) to Ben Loy, and he finds himself unable to have sex with his wife: “His passionate kisses became mere mechanical gestures, the pressing of lips together” (6). Ben Loy’s defining conflict—his inability to have sex with his wife as a result of his history with sex workers—is introduced in the first chapter, and the shadow of this conflict hangs over the rest of the novel. Later chapters, which describe the first meeting between Ben Loy and Mei Oi, are colored by readers’ knowledge of the problems in their relationship.

While Ben Loy’s problems are immediately apparent, the depiction of Mei Oi is significantly different from how she is later represented. In the first chapter, Ben Loy describes his wife as “full of innocence and the purity of youth” (3). On the day they meet, her skin is “without blemish” (49), and her nose is “perfect” (49). Ben Loy sees only “goodness and beauty” (49) in his future bride. These passages suggest that Ben Loy idolizes his future wife, imagining Mei Oi as a perfect but one-dimensional person. Her father, Lee Gong, insists that because she was born in China, Mei Oi is “better” (14) than the American-born daughters of Chinese immigrants and that she “can tell good from bad” (14). Mei Oi’s characterization as a pure and innocent young woman will change dramatically in the coming chapters.