Li Yan and Xinxin's uncle-niece relationship

Li Yan and Xinxin's uncle-niece relationship is defined less by explanation than by gestures of recognition and care. Xinxin knows Li Yan as her uncle, and their reunion at the airport makes the closeness between them visible: she spots him in the crowd, runs to him, and leaps into his arms. The novel places that spontaneous embrace beside the practical decisions Li Yan makes for her, presenting kinship as both affection and responsibility.

Family connection and shared history

The relationship is named explicitly when Mei Yuan tells Xinxin that she has given Margaret a message for her uncle. The message is part of a recurring game that Li Yan and Mei Yuan have played over the years at Mei Yuan’s jian bing stall. Mei Yuan suggests that Margaret might pass it on to Xinxin when she is older, linking the child to a network of familiar adults and shared memory that extends beyond the immediate household. The exchange does not disclose the riddle’s answer, but it establishes Li Yan’s place in Xinxin’s family circle as an understood and enduring one.

The family connection also appears against a history of loss. Margaret reflects that Mei Yuan lost her son during the Cultural Revolution and Li Yan lost his mother. She describes Mei Yuan and Li Yan as having found each other and filled missing parts of each other’s lives. That reflection concerns the bond between the two adults, not a stated explanation of Li Yan’s relationship to Xinxin; nevertheless, it places Xinxin’s care within a story shaped by broken family ties and by people forming sustaining connections after loss.

Affection and recognition

Before the airport reunion, Margaret reads to Xinxin in English from a large, colourful picture book during the taxi ride. Xinxin enjoys being read to even when she does not immediately understand every word, and Margaret is struck by how many English words she has learned over the past year. This scene shows the child moving among different languages and caregivers. It does not depict Li Yan directly, but it helps establish the close, multilingual circle around his niece, in which Margaret also has an important place.

At Hongqiao Airport, Xinxin sees Li Yan among the waiting crowd and runs to him. Margaret smiles at their embrace, recognizing the tenderness behind the tough image Li Yan presents to others. The reunion gives their relationship a clear emotional center: Xinxin’s response is immediate and unselfconscious, while Li Yan is there waiting to receive her. The scene’s warmth is soon complicated when Li Yan turns to introduce Mei-Ling, who greets Xinxin, offers her candy, and quickly wins her attention. Xinxin takes Mei-Ling’s hand and heads off with her toward the shops. Margaret’s irritation at this easy connection reflects her own insecurity, not a lack of affection between uncle and niece.

Care and everyday responsibility

Li Yan’s responsibility for Xinxin is also expressed in the arrangements he makes after the reunion. When Margaret asks whether she can return to the hotel to tuck Xinxin in, Li Yan says that he is taking her to meet her babysitter. Xinxin will share a room next to his, a concrete arrangement that keeps her close while allowing someone else to help care for her. He also tells Margaret that Xinxin will attend kindergarten in Shanghai and that Mei-Ling will take her there in the mornings, or arrange for another officer to do so if she cannot.

These decisions show Li Yan organizing the child’s immediate routine rather than treating the reunion as a purely emotional occasion. He has considered where she will sleep and how she will get to kindergarten. At the same time, he delegates parts of that care: the babysitter and Mei-Ling are included in the arrangements. The relationship is therefore portrayed not as solitary guardianship but as family care supported by other people.

Tension within the wider circle

The airport arrangements expose the strain between Margaret’s attachment to Xinxin and Li Yan’s decisions about her care. Margaret offers to take Xinxin to kindergarten herself, but Li Yan tells her that Mei-Ling will be responsible for the morning journey. Margaret has already resented Mei-Ling’s presence at the airport and worries that language will make it easier for Mei-Ling to connect with Xinxin. She fears that, despite her own closeness to the child, she may be excluded from a bond that can be expressed more easily in Chinese.

This conflict does not undo the affection shown in the embrace. Instead, it distinguishes Li Yan’s uncle-niece bond from Margaret’s troubled position among the adults competing, or fearing that they are competing, for closeness to Xinxin. Li Yan makes practical decisions about her care; Margaret experiences those decisions as further evidence of her exclusion. Through that contrast, the relationship emerges as both an intimate family connection and part of a larger, unsettled arrangement of care.