The song “Someone’s Watching Over Me” by Hilary Duff is about someone finally finding themselves and becoming comfortable with who they are after struggling with their identity for some time. I feel that this song aptly conveys Jing-mei Woo’s character traits, emotions, thoughts and predicament as an adult after the passing of her mother, Suyuan woo as she too had a prejudice against her Chinese self.
As a child, Jing-mei had always detested her Chinese culture and “had vigorously denied that (she) had any Chinese whatsoever below her skin”. In the song, “found myself today” applies to when Suyuan told Jing-mei that the Chinese is in her and will never be cut out, it “cannot be helped”. “found myself and ran away” suggests Jing-mei’s dread …show more content…
“Something pulled me back” refers to her mother’s death making her realise that she wants to get to know her roots and making her want to stop hiding from it. Jing-mei realises that she needs to learn about her Chinese heritage to get to know her mother because accepting her roots and herself was what her mother had tried to get her to do since she was young. “The voice of reason I forgot I had” suggests that Jing-mei had always misunderstood her mother and thought that her mother did not love her, she “forgot” her mother’s unconditional love and concern for her. This can be observed when she thought that her mother had “given up hope” on her after the failed piano recital which thus caused her to be insecure about herself and constantly “fall short of (Suyuan’s) expectations” even as an adult. She “didn't get straight As”, “didn’t become the class president”, “didn’t get into Stanford” and “dropped out of college”. Next, “All I know is you’re not here to say / What you always used to say” shows that Jing-mei had become so used to her mother constantly being there for her but suddenly she’s gone. She had lost her mother and she did not appreciate her while she had her. “But it’s written in the sky tonight” refers to when Jing-mei saw her long-lost twin sisters for the first time and finally saw “what part of (her) is Chinese”. It had been “so obvious”, “in (her) blood, waiting to be let go”. It is “(her) family”, but she only realised it after the trigger, that is her mother’s
As a child, Jing-mei had always detested her Chinese culture and “had vigorously denied that (she) had any Chinese whatsoever below her skin”. In the song, “found myself today” applies to when Suyuan told Jing-mei that the Chinese is in her and will never be cut out, it “cannot be helped”. “found myself and ran away” suggests Jing-mei’s dread …show more content…
“Something pulled me back” refers to her mother’s death making her realise that she wants to get to know her roots and making her want to stop hiding from it. Jing-mei realises that she needs to learn about her Chinese heritage to get to know her mother because accepting her roots and herself was what her mother had tried to get her to do since she was young. “The voice of reason I forgot I had” suggests that Jing-mei had always misunderstood her mother and thought that her mother did not love her, she “forgot” her mother’s unconditional love and concern for her. This can be observed when she thought that her mother had “given up hope” on her after the failed piano recital which thus caused her to be insecure about herself and constantly “fall short of (Suyuan’s) expectations” even as an adult. She “didn't get straight As”, “didn’t become the class president”, “didn’t get into Stanford” and “dropped out of college”. Next, “All I know is you’re not here to say / What you always used to say” shows that Jing-mei had become so used to her mother constantly being there for her but suddenly she’s gone. She had lost her mother and she did not appreciate her while she had her. “But it’s written in the sky tonight” refers to when Jing-mei saw her long-lost twin sisters for the first time and finally saw “what part of (her) is Chinese”. It had been “so obvious”, “in (her) blood, waiting to be let go”. It is “(her) family”, but she only realised it after the trigger, that is her mother’s