90 pages • 3 hours read
Michelle ZaunerCrying in H Mart
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
H Mart
H Mart is a popular chain of Asian grocery stores throughout American metropolitan areas, and Zauner uses it (as well as unaffiliated local Asian grocers) as a symbol of cultural exchange and recognition. She suggests it as a place to reconnect with her Korean heritage and to honor her mother, grandmother, and aunt, and she likens trips to H Mart to a pilgrimage. In a significant moment after her mother’s death, she puts on her mother’s sandals to go the Asian grocery store so she can cook for her aunt and cousin, signifying the importance of authentic ingredients and practices in her desire to honor and care for her family.
Kimchi
Kimchi is an act of preservation that includes decomposition, a significant distinction for Zauner’s purposes of using it as a symbol for making foods that honor what she’s lost in her mother. Zauner’s practice of making kimchi every month is more than just a therapeutic practice; learning to cook this and other Korean foods is also an act of reconnection. This symbol becomes even more resonant when she inherits her mother’s kimchi fridge only to find it filled with candid photographs from her childhood. She uses a candid shot of her mother as the cover for her first album, thereby mirroring the act of making kimchi. For Zauner, kimchi is a symbol of birth and renewal from grief.
Karaoke
Zauner thinks of karaoke as a way to release intense emotions and get to know the people singing, but it comes to harbor new meaning throughout the memoir. She meets Peter while he’s singing karaoke, and his ridiculous song choice endears him to her. Her wedding festivities end in karaoke, which enables a cathartic release. Later, she flees from her father in Vietnam and makes fast friends with Quing by singing karaoke together and cheering on the other singers. The final instance of karaoke is most significant, as it’s a duet between Nami Emo and Zauner in which the two sing a song Chongmi loved growing up. Here, karaoke serves the same purpose, but there’s added meaning: Zauner is connecting with her lost mother by sharing something Chongmi loved with someone who knew her.
