"The Paper Menagerie", Ken Liu

SS F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) March/April 2011 – fantasy

An American boy's Chinese mother makes origami paper animals for him. She breathes life into them, at least figuratively, perhaps more. The paper tiger, Laohu, takes on the neighbor kid's Obi-Wan Kenobi toy. The boy wants his mother to be less foreign, more American, and speak English to him.

A good story. When grown-up, the boy regretfully realizes he didn't know his mother, who was a mail-order bride, that well.