Synopses & Reviews
From the author of the 2007 Orange Prize finalist
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers comes a wholly original and thoroughly captivating coming-of-age story that follows a bright, impassioned young woman as she rushes headlong into the maelstrom of a rapidly changing Beijing to chase her dreams.
Twenty-one year old Fenfang Wang has traveled one thousand eight hundred miles to seek her fortune in contemporary urban Beijing, and has no desire to return to the drudgery of the sweet potato fields back home. However, Fenfang is ill-prepared for what greets her: a Communist regime that has outworn its welcome, a city under rampant destruction and slap-dash development, and a sexist attitude seemingly more in keeping with her peasant upbringing than the countrys progressive capital. Yet Fenfang is determined to live a modern life. With courage and purpose, she forges ahead, and soon lands a job as a film extra. While playing roles like woman-walking-over-the bridge and waitress-wiping-a-table help her eke out a meager living, Fenfang comes under the spell of two unsuitable young men, keeps her cupboard stocked with UFO noodles, and after mastering the fever and tumult of the city, ultimately finds her true independence in the one place she never expected.
At once wry and moving, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth gives us a clear-eyed glimpse into the precarious and fragile state of Chinas new identity and asserts Xiaolu Guo as her generations voice of modern China.
About the Author
XIAOLU GUO was born in a fishing village in southern China. After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, she wrote several books published in China before she moved to London in 2002. She was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 International Womens Film Festival for her first feature “How Is Your Fish Today?,” and is the recipient of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation Residency grant based in Paris. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, her first novel published in the U.S., was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. She divides her time between London and Beijing, and is at work on a new novel.
Reading Group Guide
1. The novel is divided, as the title suggests, into twenty short chapters with small black and white photographs scattered throughout the text. Why do you think the author chose this structure to relate her heroines story? Discuss what you think the purpose of the photographs might be.
2. Fenfang Wang leaves her rural home in hopes of capturing “bright, shiny things” in the big city. How is her journey similar or dissimilar to that of a young American woman who moves from the countryside to the city in hopes of making it big? Do you know people who have followed the same journey? In what ways do you think the cultural differences between China and America impact upon their individual experiences?
3. What is the significance of “ravenous” of the title? How does Fenfang go about satiating those needs?
4. When Fenfang arrives in Beijing, she has little money and nowhere to go. She finds herself outside a small house of a woman and her daughter, whom we see run out of the house only to get run over by a truck. Fenfang moves into their empty home. Do you find that shocking? Do you believe shes an aggressive opportunist or do you think there is something more subtle happening — an underlying will to survive? Do you think her attitudes are universal?
5. As a child Fenfang watched her mother toil in the sweet potato fields day after day; by the age of seventeen, she knows that that is not the life she wants for herself. Do you think she is sympathetic to her mothers fate? How does her view of her mother change by the end of the book?
6. Both Fenfang and Beijing are trying to come of age extremely quickly. Yet Fenfang seems overwhelmed navigating the chaos of the capital city. In what ways does her sorrow come out in the story? Why do you think a woman of Fenfangs determination finds the city so challenging?
7. Fenfang devours western films and literature. Discuss why you believe her passion for French films and American literature could be more than a reflection of the widespread popularity of western culture abroad.
8. Fenfangs boyfriend from Boston says that “China is better at being American than America.” What do you think he means by that? What are the examples in the novel that support his statement?
9. Fenfang says: “You can check any Chinese dictionary, theres no word for ‘romance. We say ‘Lo Man, copying the English pronunciation.” Did you find this observation surprising? In which ways do you think this fundamental difference in language may have contributed to Fenfangs difficulties with men and with love in general?
10. The final words of the novel are spoken by Fenfang addressing herself: “You must take care of your life.” In what ways do they sum up what the novel is about? Do you think she will take care of herself or do you see her continuing her headstrong approach to living?
1. The novel is divided, as the title suggests, into twenty short chapters with small black and white photographs scattered throughout the text. Why do you think the author chose this structure to relate her heroines story? Discuss what you think the purpose of the photographs might be.
2. Fenfang Wang leaves her rural home in hopes of capturing “bright, shiny things” in the big city. How is her journey similar or dissimilar to that of a young American woman who moves from the countryside to the city in hopes of making it big? Do you know people who have followed the same journey? In what ways do you think the cultural differences between China and America impact upon their individual experiences?
3. What is the significance of “ravenous” of the title? How does Fenfang go about satiating those needs?
4. When Fenfang arrives in Beijing, she has little money and nowhere to go. She finds herself outside a small house of a woman and her daughter, whom we see run out of the house only to get run over by a truck. Fenfang moves into their empty home. Do you find that shocking? Do you believe shes an aggressive opportunist or do you think there is something more subtle happening an underlying will to survive? Do you think her attitudes are universal?
5. As a child Fenfang watched her mother toil in the sweet potato fields day after day; by the age of seventeen, she knows that that is not the life she wants for herself. Do you think she is sympathetic to her mothers fate? How does her view of her mother change by the end of the book?
6. Both Fenfang and Beijing are trying to come of age extremely quickly. Yet Fenfang seems overwhelmed navigating the chaos of the capital city. In what ways does her sorrow come out in the story? Why do you think a woman of Fenfangs determination finds the city so challenging?
7. Fenfang devours western films and literature. Discuss why you believe her passion for French films and American literature could be more than a reflection of the widespread popularity of western culture abroad.
8. Fenfangs boyfriend from Boston says that “China is better at being American than America.” What do you think he means by that? What are the examples in the novel that support his statement?
9. Fenfang says: “You can check any Chinese dictionary, theres no word for ‘romance. We say ‘Lo Man, copying the English pronunciation.” Did you find this observation surprising? In which ways do you think this fundamental difference in language may have contributed to Fenfangs difficulties with men and with love in general?
10. The final words of the novel are spoken by Fenfang addressing herself: “You must take care of your life.” In what ways do they sum up what the novel is about? Do you think she will take care of herself or do you see her continuing her headstrong approach to living?