What does the setting reveal about the actions of the characters in "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan?

In "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, the story is set in the United
States (in San Francisco); the U.S. has been considered by so many for so long (even
today) as the "land of opportunity."

Jing-mei is the main
character, who lives with her immigrant mother.  Although the story is set
generally in the U.S., Jing-mei and her mother live
specifically in Chinatown, which is reminiscent of the China
Jing-mei's mother has left behind.

What little they have
financially comes from her mother's work cleaning other people's houses. With this sense
of her new country's grand opportunities, Jing-mei's mother decides that her daughter
will be a child prodigy playing the piano, and arranges to trade cleaning services for
piano lessons.

Jing-mei is having none of this, resisting
the dream that her mother is forcing on her; her mother wants Jing-mei to be a success
primarily to impress her friend, Lindo Jong, whose daughter is a
chess champion.

The actions of the characters directly
connected to the setting are Jing-mei's mother's sense that anything is possible in the
United States, including "teaching" her child to  be a piano virtuoso, which is unlikely
and unfair.

With memories of her years in China, its
poverty and heartache (abandoning her babies there), and the success she sees her friend
experiencing, the setting pushes Jing-mei's mother to pursue her
own American dream, though not the dream of her own
daughter.