Questions:

1.Why does the author open the book with an introduction about ailanthus? In what way is it similar to the early Chinese immigrants?

2.What does An English-Chinese Phrase Book reveal about the circumstances of Chinese in the United States in the late 19th century?

3.Why did the Chinese burn their letters, diaries, poems and anything with names when they were driven across the land?

4.How does the story of the Chan family moves through time and space in Chapter One? And how does the time shift back and forth between past and present?

5.How were Chinese detained in the Angel Island Immigration Station? What is the historical significance of Angel Island for Chinese Americans?

6.What kind of questions were Chinese immigrants asked in the interrogation?

7.How does the last chapter reinforce the central motifs and concerns of this novel?