QUESTIONS

1. Why did Chinese mothers, who had suffered through having their own feet bound, perpetuate the custom by binding their daughters’ feet?
   

2. What are some customs which have been (or still are) viewed as normal in the place and time they were used, do we in the 21st century Western world, consider barbaric? How were (are) they used to restrict certain classes or groups and to control society?
   

3. What is so powerful about these customs and traditions, or that keeps people from rebelling against them?
   

4. How did women create rich lives for themselves, intellectually and creatively, despite the lack of choices they had?
   

5. How does the way the girls in the novel are brought up and trained illustrate the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”?
   

6. What were the disadvantages of the strict disciplinary code under which girls and boys were raised? Were there any benefits to it?
   

7. The society depicted in Snow Flower is male dominated. How do the women exercise control, in their own way?
   

8. Are the male characters stereotypes, or are they fully fleshed out individuals?
   

9. How are the men’s lives portrayed? What scenes show male characters in a sympathetic light?
   

10. Why was Lily so harsh in her judgments about Snow Flower? What in her life made her that way?
    

11. Which of the characters seem the most admirable to you? Why?
    

12. What devices or techniques does the author use to make her characters, who lived in a society distant and “foreign” from ours, interesting and real?
    

13. See’s novel provides an intimate look at women’s lives in a specific place, at a specific time. What is universal about their lives and thoughts?