Sulan in Homeseeking: Character Analysis of Suchi's Older Sister
Overview: The Sister Who Refused to Disappear into Marriage
Sulan Tsan (later romanized as Sulan Chang in New York) is Suchi's older sister and one of the novel's most quietly consequential figures. Though the story's alternating points of view belong to Suchi and Howard, Sulan's presence ripples through both narratives: she is the one who understands why the sisters are really being sent to Hong Kong, the one who falls ill and inadvertently binds Suchi to a wealthy man she does not love, and the one who, from New York, spends years urging Suchi to leave that marriage. She is also the character who, in 1981, meets Howard by chance and must decide whether to help the man who once broke her sister's heart.
Sulan's arc spans more than four decades, from a sharp-tongued teenager in Shanghai to a successful designer in New York who dies in 1990. Throughout, she embodies a tension the novel returns to again and again: the desire for personal fulfillment versus the pull of family duty. Unlike Suchi, who often hesitates or defers, Sulan tends to name hard truths directly—sometimes cruelly, sometimes with love. Her story is one of ambition, guilt, and the limits of what one sister can do to save another.
Plot Role: The Pragmatic Counterweight
Sulan functions as a pragmatic counterweight to Suchi's romantic idealism. In the 1947 chapters, she is the sister who works multiple shifts, sews her own fashionable clothes, and bluntly tells Suchi she does not want to get married because she wants more than a life lived for a man. When the sisters arrive in Hong Kong in 1948, Sulan is the one who immediately grasps that their father sent them away to keep them safe—a truth Suchi has not allowed herself to see. She finds the boardinghouse, secures work with a Shanghai-born tailor, and manages their dwindling resources.
Later, Sulan's illness becomes a plot engine: her undiagnosed pain in 1965 drives Suchi to take the waitressing job at the Gate of a Hundred Delights nightclub, where she meets Lam Saikeung. When Sulan is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1966, Lam's willingness to pay her medical bills becomes a key reason Suchi feels trapped into marrying him. Sulan is thus both the beneficiary of Suchi's sacrifice and, indirectly, the cause of it—a dynamic she acknowledges with deep guilt in the 1972 chapters.
In the novel's later timeline, Sulan emigrates to New York, builds a career as a designer, and repeatedly urges Suchi to leave Saikeung. Her 1981 encounter with Howard—first hostile, then conciliatory—provides a crucial link between the two narrative threads.
Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions
Sulan's defining motivation is a refusal to accept the limited roles available to women of her generation. In 1947, she tells Suchi she does not want to marry, observing that their mother's life revolves around her children and that Haiwen's mother's life does too. She wants more. This is not idle talk: she has already taken a job at a cosmetics counter at Wing On department store, against her father's disapproval, and she and her friend Yizhen design and sell clothes on the side.
Her practicality is evident throughout the Hong Kong years. She sews jewelry into the seams of her clothing before the sisters leave Shanghai, understanding they may need hidden capital. She finds work quickly and manages the household finances. When Suchi is too naive to see why their father sent them away, Sulan spells it out with characteristic bluntness: the war is not going well, and their parents wanted them safe.
Sulan also demonstrates a fierce, protective streak—one she admits she failed to exercise when the sisters were young. In 1972, she defends Samson against Saikeung's anger and scolds Suchi for not standing up for herself, asking what happened to the girl with the sharp tongue who once said she would claw the face of any Japanese soldier who tried to kidnap her. Her disgust at Suchi's passivity is rooted in love and in her own refusal to be cowed by Saikeung, whom she openly defies.
Chronological Arc
1938: Young Sulae is enchanted by Haiwen's mother, mimicking her elegance and insisting the sisters use their Mandarin names to sound more sophisticated. She befriends a classmate, Yizhen, and drifts away from Suji and Haiwen's daily walks.
1947: Sulan works at the cosmetics counter, makes Suchi a plum-colored qipao for her birthday, and confesses she does not want to marry. Siau Zi, the family's boarder, has begun to fixate on her.
1948–1953: The sisters flee to Hong Kong. Sulan understands the real purpose of the trip, finds work with a tailor, and becomes the practical anchor of their new life. Siau Zi writes offering to protect their parents if Sulan returns to marry him; Suchi conceals the letter.
1965–1966: Sulan's health deteriorates. She is eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Lam Saikeung pays her medical bills, deepening Suchi's sense of obligation to him.
1972: Sulan defends Samson against his father, scolds Suchi for her passivity, and announces she does not plan to stay in Hong Kong forever.
1981: Sulan, now in New York and running her own label, meets Howard at a fabric studio. She is initially hostile, then apologizes and gives him Suchi's phone number.
1985: Sulan urges Suchi to leave Saikeung now that Samson is grown.
1990: Sulan dies. Suchi reveals this to Howard in 2008.
Relationships
With Suchi: The central relationship of Sulan's life. She is protective, critical, and guilt-ridden in roughly equal measure. She admits in 1972 that she did not watch out for Suchi well when they were young, and that Suchi has ended up protecting her instead—at the expense of Suchi's happiness. Her repeated urging that Suchi leave Saikeung is driven by this guilt and by genuine love.
With Siau Zi: The boarder's unrequited obsession. Sulan is oblivious to his attention in 1947. Years later, his letter offering to protect their parents in exchange for marrying her is intercepted and hidden by Suchi—a decision that means Sulan never knows how close she came to being bartered into a marriage she did not want.
With Howard: Their 1981 meeting is charged with decades of unresolved feeling. Sulan's initial hostility—demanding to know how he can be alive after all his sister has suffered—gives way to a more measured response: she apologizes and gives him Suchi's number, describing Suchi's unhappy marriage.
With Samson: A loving aunt who defends him against his father and gives him a handmade stuffed rabbit. She tells Suchi that Samson needs her—for protection, love, and guidance—and that the two of them are on the same team.
With Saikeung: Openly defiant. She refuses to owe him anything and tells him plainly that she does not plan to stay under his roof forever.
Key Decisions and Consequences
Going to Hong Kong: Though the decision was their father's, Sulan's willingness to go—and her clear-eyed understanding of why—shapes the sisters' fate. She adapts quickly, finding work and housing.
Not returning to marry Siau Zi: Sulan never makes this choice because she never knows about the letter. Suchi's concealment of it is one of the novel's most consequential hidden decisions, sparing Sulan a marriage of coercion but also leaving their parents unprotected.
Emigrating to New York: Sulan builds a career as a designer, fulfilling a version of the ambition she expressed in 1947. She tells Howard that Suchi wanted at least one of them to pursue their dreams and helped make it happen.
Giving Howard Suchi's phone number in 1981: A decision that reopens the possibility of reunion between Suchi and Howard, though Howard ultimately destroys the envelope, choosing to appreciate his family.
Urging Suchi to leave Saikeung: Sulan's repeated insistence, from 1972 through 1985, keeps alive the possibility that Suchi might escape her marriage.
Theme and Symbol Connections
Sulan connects to several of the novel's central themes. Her refusal to marry in 1947 speaks to sacrifice and duty versus personal fulfillment: she wants a life of her own, yet her illness ultimately binds her sister to a marriage of obligation. Her emigration to New York and her career as a designer reflect displacement and multilingual identity in the diaspora—she is Sulan in Shanghai, Sulae in childhood, and Sulan Chang in New York, her name romanized differently as her self-conception shifts.
Her insistence that Suchi stop looking backward and leave her marriage connects to forgetting as survival versus remembering as healing. Sulan is, in some ways, a figure of forward motion: she leaves Hong Kong, builds a new life, and urges her sister to do the same. Yet her guilt about Suchi's sacrifice suggests that moving forward does not mean leaving the past behind.
Sulan's illness and Suchi's nightclub singing also tie into music as memory and emotional refuge: Suchi's performances are partly for Sulan's medical bills, and the violin Suchi carries to Hong Kong—the one she later returns to Howard—travels with them through their years of displacement.
Questions and Answers
Why does Sulan react with hostility when she meets Howard in New York in 1981?
Sulan's hostility stems from protective anger. She demands to know how Howard can be alive after all her sister has suffered, and cuts him off when he tries to explain. Her reaction reflects years of watching Suchi endure an unhappy marriage—a marriage Sulan believes was shaped, in part, by Howard's abandonment.
Why does Sulan say she does not want to get married in 1947?
Sulan tells Suchi that marriage seems terrible because it means living your life for a man. She points to their mother and to Haiwen's mother, whose lives revolve around their children. She wants more—though she admits she may just be selfish.
What does Sulan know about the real reason for the sisters' trip to Hong Kong?
Sulan understands that their father is sending them away to keep them safe from the war, the Nationalists, and the Communists. She pieced this together from her father's behavior—having her sew jewelry into her clothing seams—and from overhearing her parents argue. She assumes Suchi knows too, and is surprised to discover she does not.
Why does Sulan urge Suchi to leave Saikeung?
Sulan believes Suchi has sacrificed her happiness for her family—specifically, for Sulan's medical care. She tells Suchi in 1972 that she is sorry Suchi has ended up protecting her at the expense of her own happiness, and she wants Suchi to find her fighting spirit again. By 1985, with Samson grown, she sees no remaining reason for Suchi to stay.
What is the significance of Sulan's career as a designer in New York?
Sulan's career fulfills the ambition she expressed in 1947, when she told Suchi that she and Yizhen could open their own business if they were men. She tells Howard that Suchi wanted at least one of them to pursue their dreams and helped make it happen. Her success represents the possibility of a life beyond marriage and motherhood—the life she chose for herself.