How does the novel use the mythologized settings of the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang and the Peach Blossom Spring to represent competing visions of China’s past and future?

Compare and contrast the moral justifications that Vivien Li and Liu Tongzhi use to explain their willingness to cause personal anguish to their loved ones. Are these justifications adequate?

In what ways does the novel use food—its preparation, sharing, and cultural memory—as a metaphor? What ideas or emotions does food communicate?

How does the gradual revelation of her parents’ and grandparents’ hidden histories reframe Alice’s understanding of her investigation and of herself?

How do the settings of Hong Kong, Beijing, and the rural Chinese countryside dramatize tensions between tradition and modernity, surveillance and freedom, memory and erasure?

Examine the novel’s portrayal of female knowledge and labor in patriarchal societies. How do women in the novel reclaim agency?

In some anglophone countries—especially in the UK—the word mandarin (lowercase) refers to a high-level government official with deep international connections. In what sense is Alice positioned as the “last” of this lineage, and how does the novel represent this figure?

Consider the novel’s treatment of betrayal—personal, familial, and national. How do characters distinguish loyalty to people from loyalty to ideas, and what is the cost of confusing the two?