Description
- Choose one author and one novel: Ba Jin – Family or Eileen Chang – Love in a Fallen City.
- Papers should be at least 5 pages typed and double-spaced with 1” margins. The bibliography does not count as a page.
• If you use outside sources or quotes, you must provide footnotes and a bibliography. Please do not copy from sources online or in books without attribution. Plagiarism is not tolerated.
• You need not write about every question for a topic. These are designed to help you think about how to approach the topic. - If you choose Ba Jin – Family
• How is Family a critique of the traditional Chinese family?
• How do the three Kao (Gao) brothers, Chueh-hsin (Juexin), Chueh-min (Juemin), and Chueh-hui (Juehui),
represent three different aspects of the “new youth”?
• Compare and contrast the main women characters in Family who are the love interests of the brothers:
Cousin Mei, Ming-feng, and cousin Chin (Qin). How do their family backgrounds determine their fates?
• How does Ba Jin critique the different social classes in Family, from the upper class Kao (Gao) family to the
servants? What does he see as the problems and what does he think are the solutions?
If you choose Eileen Chang – Love in a Fallen City
• Discuss how Eileen Chang offers an “alternative wartime narrative” in Love in a Fallen City. How does she depict the war in her work?
• Discuss the theme of the fallen city in this novel.
• Fan Liuyuan says that Bai Liusu is “a real Chinese woman.” Define what a real Chinese woman might be in the context of the novel and whether or not in your opinion Liusu is a real Chinese woman.
• Discuss the nature of the love affair between Fan Liuyuan and Bai Liusu. How is it traditional? How is it modern? What kinds of conflicts exist between Fan and Bai?
Sample Solution