I wore neatly plaited braids clipped with plastic barrettes trimmed with rhinestones. I was playing in a large high school auditorium that echoed with phlegmy coughs and the squeaky rubber knobs of chair legs sliding across freshly waxed wooden floors.
All of this is imagery of what she wore to a tournament and what the tournament looked like.
why it's important to control the center early on; the shortest distance between two points is straight down the middle.
Imagery: She is entailing a tactic in the game of chess.
The chessmen were more powerful than old Li's magic herbs that cured ancestral curses.
Hyperbole and Personification:
Hyperbole- She is giving the chessmen much credit for simply being pieces to a chessboard. Personification: Chessmen can not be "powerful" due to the fact that they are inanimate.
apologizing to the crowd for her son who had such bad manners he couldn't appreciate such a fine gift.
Inference: The entire community is poor, not just the main family depicted in the story.
My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances
Inference: The family are immigrants from China, which could explain their poverty, as well as the mother's desire to change their generational narrative.