Daughters of Shandong

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Which character did you relate to most strongly? What made you connect with this character?

2. What do you think of the book’s illustration of extreme poverty? Can you relate to this?

3. What did you think of the ways the Ang women built community in their different cities? What role has community played in your own life and sense of identity?

4. What do you think about the values of family and family duty that are expressed in this novel? Where did you see these as being a positive force? In what ways did they cause harm?

5. Were you able to identify with Mom’s belief that the best possible future for her girls lay in rejoining their father? Do you think she was right?

6. At one point, Hai reflects on her feelings of personal powerlessness to resist governmental authority. Instead, she says one must learn “to carry an umbrella and smile through the rain” (256). What do you think of this strategy? In what ways have you felt powerful or powerless in the face of authority?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. What did you learn about the Communist Revolution in China? What illumination, if any, did this book give you on the current political situation in China and the country’s relationship to Hong Kong and/or Taiwan?

2. What parallels do you see between the experience of the Ang women and the displacements resulting from war, famine, and other conflicts in the present day? Are there lessons to be learned from the way Hong Kong officials handled their refugees?

3. Other writers, like Adeline Yen Mah in her memoir Falling Leaves (1997) or Lisa See in her novel Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (2023) have observed the abuse that can arise from traditional Chinese values around filial piety and the roles of women. What do you make of the novel’s proposed solutions around gender equality for women?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Discuss what impact the first-person point of view has on the story. How might this story have been different if told through a different point of view? What specific themes does this point of view allow Chung to analyze?

2. Compare the strategies for survival that the different characters pursue, from self-preservation to self-sacrifice. Do you see the novel making an argument for the success of any one strategy over another?

3. What difference did you see, if any, in the various settings of the book? How did the opportunities and limitations of each setting compare?

4. Hai’s determination to seek financial independence and self-reliance goes against the traditional values she was taught as a child. What experiences would you say were most formative in shaping this determination? Why do you suppose Hai and Di felt this self-reliance when other characters, like Mom, did not?

5. Discuss the importance of family, legacy, and heritage as a thematic element of the book. What are the strengths of these bonds, according to the novel? What are the drawbacks?

6. How well would you say this novel succeeds as a work of historical fiction? Discuss Chung’s use of historical background, description, and detail.