1. The title of this book comes from a passage in Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book:
Why do you think the author chose to take the title from this passage?
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and magnanimous.”
Why do you think the author chose to take the title from this passage?
2. Why do you think Chairman Mao was so easily able to turn neighbors against neighbors during the Cultural Revolution?
3. Ling’s mother is able to sense early on that things in China are changing (on page 11, Ling notes that her mother has been in a bad mood for almost a year). What early indications does the author give that “danger [is] knocking on doors all over China”?
4. Why does Ling’s mother disapprove of so much of her behavior? Why do you think Mother seems to Ling “like a proud white rose,” which Ling is “afraid to touch because of [the] thorns”?
5. A propaganda film is a film produced (often by a government) to convince the viewer of a certain political point or influence the opinions or behavior of people. Midnight Rooster in this book is an example of such a film. What effect did watching this film have on the students at Ling’s school? Why do you think Ling did not react to the film in the same way as her classmates?
6. What role does food play in the narrative of this book? Why do you think food is so central to the story?
7. Ling’s understanding of what bourgeois means changes throughout the book. Based on the events of the novel, what did the word mean during China’s Cultural Revolution? Why was it bad for a family to be bourgeois?
8. Father chose to stay in China—rather than go to America with Dr. Smith—to help build a new China. The rally cry of Comrade Li’s Red Guard is also for a new China. Why are the two groups (people like Ling’s parents and devotees of Chairman Mao) not able to work together to build a new China?
9. When Ling asks Mother why her family needs to hang so many portraits of Mao in their apartment, Mother explains, “It’s like the incense we burn in the summer to keep the mosquitoes away.” What does she mean?
10. What does the Golden Gate Bridge represent to Ling and her family?
11. Mr. Ji, the antirevolutionary writer Ling and Father save, says “dark clouds have concealed the sun for too long” before he leaves their apartment. What does he mean?
12. What keeps Ling, Mother, and Father from losing hope like Mr. Ji and the baby doctor did?
13. Why does Father operate on Comrade Sin?
14. Can you think of a time in America’s history when the political atmosphere was like that during the Cultural Revolution in China? Why do you think people, no matter what country they live in, behave this way?
For more information about Square Fish books, authors, and illustrators visit