The story's title refers to a statement Jing-mei's mother makes about the two kinds of daughters that exist in the world: those who are obedient and those who "follow their own mind." Jing-mei makes the choice to be the second kind of daughter, and she defies her mother's commands to practice piano. Previously she had failed to become the prodigy her mother wanted her to be. She had deceived her mother into thinking she was working at piano lessons, but at the talent show, she displayed her sloppy playing, causing embarrassment for herself and her mother. After that failure, Jing-mei feels her will getting stronger. She concludes, "I didn't have to do what my mother said anymore. I wasn't her slave."
However, the willfulness that Jing-mei's mother perceives in her is not the only thing that is awakening in her daughter. Jing-mei is more and more craving authenticity, the right to be who she is. Her mother doesn't realize how hurtful her aspirations for her daughter are; Jing-mei takes them as a rejection of herself, at one point lashing out with the words, "Why don't you like me the way I am?" Later, when her mother tries to physically force her to play piano, she sobs, "You want me to be someone that I'm not!"
Summarizing their relationship as Jing-mei grew older, Jing-mei states, "I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will." She explains that even though her mother believed her daughter could be anything she wanted to be, "I could only be me." Thus the two characteristics of Jing-mei that put her at odds with her mother were her willfulness and her desire for authenticity--being true to herself.
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