The article was about a certain Chinese woman, now residing in America, reminiscing about events that took place several years before. The tone of the piece is a bit cynical as the young lady’s father tries, at every opportunity to dissuade her from ‘enjoying herself’, as she rightly described it. However, several years down the line, she looks back and realises that all her fantasies about Tang were based only based on the status attributed to the consumption of the drink.
In all, most of the characters portrayed in the writing harboured misgivings about the drink. Albeit for the wrong reasons: most of them detested the drink because they couldn’t afford it whereas they consistently tried to identify with the drink only because of the status attached to it.
The piece is an attempt at showcasing the life of the average Beijing inhabitant and the hypocrisy they all dwell on. The young woman that was main character seems to be mulling on her folly as she blindly fell in love with a drink that she thinks is the answer to all her dreams as a young girl ready to enjoy life to the fullest by consuming the imported expensive artificial orange drink. She realised her folly much later when she finally consumed the drink and realises that the drink is not even as tasteful as the real citrus fruit.
Many years later when she saw the drink in a grocery store, she realised that the drink is not only ordinary but also inexpensive, compared with the idealised drink which she treasured in her mind for so long. She seems to finally accept her father’s attitude over the years which she initially interpreted as “a kill joy’ character. Initial dislike for the attitude of her father towards the “tangy drink” was replaced by a later acceptance of the reality of the situation. This story tries to strike a dichotomy between fantasy and reality, emphasising that being real and simple is always the best.
