Lily Hu: A Character Analysis

Overview

Lily Hu is the seventeen-year-old Chinese American protagonist of Last Night at the Telegraph Club. Over the course of the novel, she transforms from a guarded, duty-bound daughter into a young woman willing to risk everything for her queer identity and her love for Kathleen Miller. Set against the backdrop of the Red Scare and systemic homophobia in 1950s San Francisco, Lily’s story is one of quiet rebellion, courageous self-examination, and the painful cost of truth.

Plot Role and Character Traits

Lily serves as the novel’s emotional center. Her journey is driven by curiosity, integrity, and a deep but unspoken longing. Initially, she appears cautious and compliant, careful to meet her parents’ expectations. Yet her secret collection of clippings—of Katharine Hepburn in trousers, of two female pilots, of male impersonator Tommy Andrews—reveals a persistent, preexisting desire to understand non‑normative gender and sexuality. Lily is introspective and analytical, traits that help her navigate moral dilemmas but also create internal conflict when her private and public selves clash.

Motivations and Arc

Early Curiosity

In Chapter 1, Lily sees an ad for the Telegraph Club at the Eastern Pearl restaurant. She tears it out and hides it, washing ink from her hands. This act establishes her pattern of secret accumulation of images that defy gender conventions. In Chapter 2, she waits until her family sleeps to examine her collection, “feeling a restless urge to look and to understand something about herself she could not yet name.”

Discovery and Denial

Lily’s discomfort with heteronormative expectations surfaces in Chapter 6, when she realizes she feels no attraction to Will Chan and finds the idea of kissing him repugnant. Her dream of Chinese astronauts on Mars, from the same chapter, symbolizes her mental escape from prescribed roles. In Chapter 5, she discovers a pulp novel, Strange Season, depicting a romance between two women. Reading a kiss between the characters, she feels “an electric thrill,” and later she masturbates while imagining them, accepting her own desires without guilt.

Building Connection

The friendship with Kath Miller deepens in Chapters 8 and 10. Lily volunteers for the dance committee to avoid being Will’s date and eventually makes a bold choice: when Shirley snubs her after the Spook‑A‑Rama dance (Chapter 16), Lily calls out to Kath in front of everyone, choosing her emerging connection over her old friendship. This marks a turning point in which Lily actively prioritizes her own truth over social acceptance.

Taking Risks

Lily agrees to visit the Telegraph Club after Kath obtains a fake ID for her (Chapter 18). The preparation scene in Chapter 19 shows her panic and resolve: she sees a stranger in the mirror and gains “reckless courage,” donning a beret and red lipstick. At the club, she feels both intense attraction and discomfort, realizing the gap between fantasy and reality. After the raid (Chapter 38), Lily confesses to her mother in Chapter 40, saying, “I think I’m like them.” This open declaration—though risky—demonstrates her unwillingness to deny her identity.

Relationships

Kath Miller

Kath is Lily’s first love and the catalyst for her self-acceptance. Their bond grows through shared secrets, long walks, and mutual risk-taking. In Chapter 32, after a party, Kath pulls Lily into an alley, where they share their first kiss. Later, in a school storage closet (Chapter 35), they choose to continue their secret relationship despite the threat of exposure. Their intimacy in Miss Weiland’s classroom (Chapter 36) marks Lily’s deepening trust and pleasure.

Shirley

Shirley is Lily’s lifelong friend who represents the costs of conformity. She warns Lily away from Kath (Chapter 15) and later snubs her (Chapter 16), but their friendship is partially mended in Chapter 26 when Shirley admits she has been a bad friend. The final fracture occurs when Shirley, after the Telegraph Club raid, urges Lily to deny everything (Chapter 39). Lily refuses, and Shirley, horrified, cuts ties. Lily understands Shirley’s vulnerability but chooses honesty.

Family

Lily’s parents, Grace and Joseph Hu, enforce respectability and fear of deportation. In Chapter 40, Lily’s mother refuses to believe her daughter could be at a homosexual club, calling her “a good Chinese girl.” Lily’s confession—and her mother’s disgust—create a painful distance. Yet Lily’s love for her family is real; she feels split in two during the family dinner (Chapter 46), working to keep her “unwelcome half” silent.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Each choice moves Lily from passivity to agency, even when the outcome is painful.

Themes and Symbolic Connections

Secrecy and Identity: Lily’s hidden clippings, the fake ID she uses as “May Lee Wong,” and the Telegraph Club’s hidden world all underscore the theme of secrecy and identity.

Queer Desire and Self‑Discovery: Lily’s journey from fascination with Tommy Andrews to her relationship with Kath mirrors the theme of queer desire and self‑discovery.

Family Duty vs. Personal Truth: Lily’s confession to her mother directly embodies the conflict in family duty vs. personal truth.

The Red Scare and McCarthyism: The constant threat of deportation and FBI surveillance shapes Lily’s world; her family’s danger parallels the theme of the Red Scare and McCarthyism.

Chinese American Identity and Assimilation: Lily’s discomfort at the Miss Chinatown pageant and her mother’s obsession with respectability reflect the theme of Chinese American identity and assimilation.

Symbolically, flight and outer space recur throughout Lily’s dreams (Chinese astronauts on Mars, space exploration books) as a metaphor for freedom from social gravity.

Lily Hu: Five Key Questions

1. What first sparks Lily’s curiosity about queer culture?
In Chapter 1, Lily sees a newspaper ad for male impersonator Tommy Andrews at the Telegraph Club. She tears it out, hides it, and later adds it to a secret collection of clippings of women who defy gender norms. The ad stirs “something still inside her,” a pre‑verbal recognition.

2. Why does Lily decide to go to the Telegraph Club despite the risks?
After Kathleen Miller returns her dropped clipping and reveals she has been to the club, Lily feels a new connection. In Chapter 18, Kath gives her a fake ID, and Lily’s dream of a rocket on Mars—symbolizing escape—strengthens her resolve. She risks legal trouble and family disgrace because her desire to understand herself is stronger than fear.

3. How does Lily’s relationship with Shirley change over the story?
They begin as close friends, but Shirley’s demand that Lily deny her relationship with Kath causes a permanent rift. Lily recognizes that Shirley wants to protect her but cannot accept her truth. In the final break, Lily says, “I love him”—echoing Shirley’s earlier statement—but cannot deny her own love for Kath.

4. What is the significance of the fake ID Lily uses?
The fake driver’s license bearing the name “May Lee Wong” allows Lily to cross into a forbidden adult space. It represents a constructed identity—neither fully her own nor fully false—and marks her decision to participate in a hidden queer world. The ID’s authenticity alarms Lily, but she uses it to enter the Telegraph Club.

5. How does the Red Scare affect Lily’s family and her own choices?
The FBI interviews Lily’s father because he refuses to sign a false statement about Calvin (Chapter 11); his citizenship papers are confiscated, putting the family at risk of deportation. This threat makes every choice more dangerous: association with the Man Ts’ing youth group or with a lesbian club could destroy her family. Nevertheless, Lily eventually risks exposure because living a lie feels impossible.

For a deeper look at the novel’s ending, visit the ending explained, or browse questions and answers.