Lily Hu is 13 years old. While attending the Miss Chinatown competition, she notices a group of Chinese girls who “looked so American” (4). She stares at them and then feels as if she’s watching something intimate. She returns to sit with her family and watch the pageant on the lawn with her family. Her mother, father, two siblings, aunt and uncle are all there. She quickly spots her friend Shirley and moves to sit with her. As they watch the swimsuit portion of the competition, Lily doesn’t “understand the shrinking feeling inside her, as if she shouldn’t be caught looking at those girls” (6).

Afterward, she and Shirley go up onstage. As Shirley stands front and center, Lily speculates that she’s exactly “what a Chinese girl should look like” (8-9) and wonders if this is true.

It’s now Shirley and Lily’s senior year of high school, and they sit folding napkins in the Eastern Pearl, a Chinatown restaurant that Shirley’s family owns. While Shirley corrects hers, Lily looks through the Chronicle. On the same page as an ad for the Eastern Pearl is an ad that reads: “Tommy Andrews Male Impersonator—World Premiere! The Telegraph Club. 462 Broadway” (16).