Kieu Chinh credited as playing...
Suyuan - The Mother
- Suyuan: That bad crab, only you tried to take it. Everybody else want best quality. You, your thinking different. Waverly took best-quality crab. You took worst, because you have best-quality heart. You have style no one can teach. Must be born this way. I see you.
- Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: I'm just sorry that you got stuck with such a loser, that I've always been so disappointing.
- Suyuan: What you mean disappoint? Piano?
- Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: Everything: my grades, my job, not getting married, everything you expected of me.
- Suyuan: Not expect anything! Never expect! Only hope! Only hoping best for you. That's not wrong, to hope.
- Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: No? Well, it hurts, because every time you hoped for something I couldn't deliver, it hurt. It hurt me, Mommy. And no matter what you hope for, I'll never be more than what I am. And you never see that, what I really am.
- Suyuan: [Takes off necklace she is wearing and gives it to June] June, since your baby time, I wear this next to my heart. Now, you wear next to yours. It will help you know. I see you. I see you.
- June (Age 9): You want me to be someone I'm not. I'll never be the kind of daughter that you want me to be.
- Suyuan: Only two kinds of daughter: obedient or follow-own-mind. Only one kind of daughter could live in this house: obedient kind.
- June (Age 9): Then I wish I wasn't your daughter. I wish you weren't my mom.
- Suyuan: Too late to change this.