Two Kinds is a short story written by Amy Tan narrating conflicting ideas between Jing-mei and her mother. Jing-mei’s mother felt she needed to nature her child to become her prodigy to help her in the future. In the process of testing her with several talents, Jing-mei discovered her mother was forcing her to become a person she never liked and lost interest in. Jing-mei’s mother arranged for her daughter to take piano lessons but Jing-mei did not concentrate on the piano lessons.
During a talent contest when Jing-mei was supposed to perform, she played the piano terribly and disappointed her mother. Her mother still insisted that Jing-mei had to learn to play the piano, but Jing-mei got frustrated and told her mother to leave her alone. Her mother got shocked and ended her effort into making Jing-mei her prodigy. Her mother finally accepted her child was not an obedient child but the child who acted on her own thoughts.