The piece Digging in China” by Michelle Y., is about the narrator's feelings towards her mother.  When she was a baby, her biological mother had left her in front of a police station.  Michelle felt hatred towards her mom.  How could her mom be so willing to leave a baby?  China was a country that allowed one child per couple and favored males.  Still the writer didn't understand why her mom would still abandon a child just for those reasons and let her be adopted by another family.  Later on, Michelle came back to China and visited an orphanage and she started to realize the reason by her mom’s decision.  This piece shows how cruel society is and how we sometimes only understand the truth of things from others perspective.
          

This piece is somewhat relatable.  Like the narrator, I am also Chinese and have similar culture and traditions.  Chinese parents tend to compare their own children a lot to others.  Sometimes, I feel this growing dislike for my own parents when I hear all their comparisons and scoldings.  The piece states, “Anyone could see that the hatred I harbored for my birth mother was only a cover for the hurt buried deep inside.”  I understood how the narrator felt.  My dislike similar to the writer was only a mask for my hurt.  I sometimes wondered if I was just that much worse than other people.  The words and actions hurt sometimes, especially since they are our parents.  Yet now I understand from their point of view now, that they only want me to try my best to be the best.