Women In Sky Lee's Disappearing Moon Cafe

In Sky Lee 's Novel, Disappearing Moon Café, the character Kae breaks the circle of female self-destruction that has restricted and isolated the women of the Wong family through three generations. By discovering the secrets of her family 's history, and more specifically the truth about her dead aunt Suzanne, Kae learns to erase the boundaries the have hindered her own aspirations and rejects the Chinese patriarchal values that confined and controlled the women of her past. The rediscovery of her individual identity allows Kae to embrace her own sexuality and artistic ambitions and, in turn, leads her to pursue a lesbian relationship with Hermia. Kae finds companionship, love and trust from Hermia, and leaves behind the rigid constraints of a patriarchally defined society for a female community.

Throughout the novel, a close parallel is drawn between Kae 's quest to reveal the secrets of her past and her journey towards self-realization. By slowly piecing together the tragic circumstances surrounding the suicide of her aunt Suzanne, Kae begins to realize her own path. This new direction eventually evolves beyond the practice of traditionally defined Chinese patriarchal ideals that
By identifying the stifling barriers that resulted in Suzanne 's eventual suicide, Kae realizes that she must not doom herself to the same fate of her ancestors by allowing the masculine to manipulate her existence. Kae expresses this in a letter to Hermia: "I am afraid that I am just as vulnerable as Suzie to having my first real creative expression thwarted.