Panel 1
Min Hua walks away from town with a bag of supplies slung over her shoulder, looking annoyed.
Street Vendor: “Little girl, Send that pretty sister of yours next time.”
Panel 2
Min Hua passes a mother and her child, her eyes watering a little.
Child: “Mommy, if she’s so much older, why isn’t little Min any bigger?”
Mother: “Shhh! Not so loud!
Child: “I hope I don’t stay short.”
Panel 3
Min Hua’s sister, Xiu Mei, sitting on top of a now bruised Min Hua, holding her wrist at an awkward angle.
Xiu Mei: You’ve kept me waiting little sister. What am I to do with you?
Min Hua: Nrgh!
Panel 4
Min sits alone crying.
4 thoughts on “Meet Min Hua”
All-Purpose Guru
My god, I just realized where they are in China. The only way you could have picked something more remote would be to put them in Tibet. Are they speaking regular Mandarin or Sichuanese?
They are about 900 miles from my brother-in-law’s place in Hong Kong.
Ryan Gindlesperger
Yeah, they’re pretty far out there, but not altogether too far from Cheng Du. So while it’s in the boonies, it’s not horribly far from a larger populace.
I was about to go into “reasons” but it’s a bit early in the comic to have that sitting out there, so I’ll just relay that Min is pretty well read.
She’s competent in Sichuanese and Chuanpu with near fluency in Standard Mandarin at the insistence of Xiu Mei for reasons you likely understand given how much you’ve read.
All-Purpose Guru
My daughter’s nanny is from Chongquing, so I know there’s a trip planned THERE sometime in the future. Most of my wife’s family is further south in the Pearl River area.
All-Purpose Guru
Reason why I ask, it’s surprising that Rei and Kenji would know Chuanpu, but Mandarin would work…