As a child Celia begged her father to teach her Chinese, but he refused. Why do you suppose this was? If your ancestors hale from a country where English isn’t spoken, how did they feel about retaining their language and culture after immigrating?
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Celia’s father thought he was protecting her. He wanted her to grow up and become an American, speak the language and do well in school. I think this was typical of early immigrants. My grandparents were from Slovakia and while the language was spoken at home, the grandchildren never learned the language, we all spoke English, even when Baba spoke to us in Slovak, we responded in English. It was their way of helping us to grow and advance in this country. They knew that not understanding the language led to being taken advantage of, as my grandfather, a coalminer, often was.
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I had that same experience.
My father spoke beautiful Italian, but he never taught us, but I guess we never asked. 
We would hear him speaking to his father and his siblings.
My parents both grew up the children of Hungarian immigrants. Like @Elizabeth, my grandparents didn’t offer & my parents weren’t interested. Later in life, after my sister and I were out on our own, they did take Hungarian language lessons for several years.
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Celia’s father wanted a better life for his daughter. As a Chinese immigrant he was faced with prejudice and cruelty. I believe he thought Celia would have more opportunities if she spoke only English.
At the time, the immigrants were trying to acclimate to America. Part of that was changing to a new language.
I agree Lynne especially since her mother was not Asian. He knew she would have find prejudice and cruelty for that fact and so speaking a language other than English would only add fuel to the fire.
I agree that he thought it would protect people from finding out she was Chinese and that it would make things easier for her down the line.
My great-grandmother came to the States from Russia when she was a child. It’s been said that after learning English, she did all she good to lose her accent and hated when people spoke in other languages. I find it sad today that none of her language was passed on but I can at least understand her perspective on trying to assimilate and not be judged on background.
Celia was able to look more American in her bearing and her skin. Her dad wanted to have her use English was a way of helping her to be less conspicuous. He refused to have her speak in Chinese as she might be less able to live her life with less problems.
I did not have this experience, but totally agree with your comment. Thanks for sharing that.
Her father wanted her to blend in, she passed for white. Chinese were hated during the time.
Although I haven’t personally had this experience, my husband’s family had a similar situation. His grandfather came from Mexico, and he refused to allow his five children, including my mother-in-law, to learn Spanish. In fact, one of my mother-in-law’s sisters had to live in Mexico with relatives for a time, and the family’s biggest concern about this situation was that their daughter/sister came back knowing how to speak Spanish. They believed that the language would mark them as foreigners and as somehow less than “real” Americans. My mother-in-law is no longer alive, unfortunately, but her two remaining siblings now talk about their lack of Spanish ability and what a loss this is. I think later generations see this situation differently from the actual immigrants, and this was especially true in the past. Speaking English well was a point of pride and belonging that was sometimes based in part on a subtle (or obvious) disparagement of the heritage culture. As a more recent example, a Nicaraguan friend of our daughter was mortified when their elementary school teacher asked her to read a poem in Spanish at a school assembly. She wanted to be like the other children and didn’t want to be recognized publicly for her ability to speak Spanish. I believe that this phenomenon is referred to as “language trauma.”
I agree with others that Celia’s father was trying to protect her. My ancestors came from English speaking countries, but as a former teacher in Texas, I know of many children who never learned the language of their ancestors. Even today, there are people who think that children should only speak English in school.
Celia’s father was protecting her from the prejudice that prevailed against foreigners.
Celia’s father was trying to protect her, knowing that she could pass as a white woman. New immigrants often want their children to assimilate and not face prejudice.
I wish my mother had taught me to speak Norwegian. Sadly, as the years went on she forgot a lot of it herself, but when she was growing up, Norwegian was spoken at home because her grandparents lived with the family and they never learned to speak English.
Like so many people during that era, Celia’s father wanted Celia to be accepted in society and not subjected to bigotry & discrimination, and saw her speaking English as one means to that end. Learning to speak English was seen as part of the process of assimilating and fitting in.
Happily, that mindset has evolved, at least here in California where it is not unusual at all to hear several different languages spoken in one place. I was a State of California employee for many years, and the number of different languages in which services are provided is staggering! The list is exhaustive and multilingual employees are valued & compensated for their ability to assist constituents in languages other than English.