During one of her good moods, she buys me a refrigerator magnet from a convenience store. The magnet says BEST DAUGHTER, she tells me, and I nod. I can’t bring myself to tell her that it says BEST DOGSITTER. At first glance the two words are very close. At second, practically indistinguishable. Two Shanghainese words: Ma zi. Ah zi. One means sock and the other means shoe. I could never get them straight and my mother found this funny.
