In the story "Two Kinds," Jing-mei and her mother have a conflicted relationship because Jing-mei's mother tries to turn her into a prodigy. Although Jing-mei initially complies with her mother's efforts, she soon discovers she cannot live up to her mother's demands. The sticking point becomes piano playing. Jing-mei's mother is sure her daughter has enough natural talent to be a prodigy — if she only wanted to be one and if she would try. Jing-mei thinks her mother doesn't like her the way she is and that her mother wants to change her into something she's not. Jing-mei only half-heartedly learns to play the piano, and when she embarrasses herself at a recital, she refuses to keep practicing. This leads to a heated confrontation, after which Jing-mei's mother never asks her daughter to play piano again. It's poignant, then, that on Jing-mei's thirtieth birthday, her mother offers to give her the piano as a birthday present. Jing-mei doesn't take the piano at first, but she is moved that her mother would offer it to her. After her mother's death, Jing-mei has the piano tuned and tries playing the piece that she tripped up on at the recital, and finds she is able to play fairly easily, suggesting Jing-mei actually did have talent when she was younger, but chose not to use it as a way of asserting her will over her mother's.
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