View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Sing Kay Ng get his name?

2. What symbolizes to the Filipino king that the mandarin is of a higher social class than other Chinese already living there?

3. What animal does Lo Bun Sun make his pet and what does he teach it to do?

4. What food product is Uncle Bun obsessed with when the reader first meets him?

5. What does the Hundred-Year-Old man do to rest during his trips to town early in his time in Hawaii?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain why members of the freighter's crew try to send their shipmate to China and describe the Wild Man's response at the airport.

2. Create a dictionary using words from the chapter, "The Li Sao: An Elegy." Choose words that readers will need to have knowledge of in order to understand the story. Create a display using words that fit the theme of the folktale, such as phoenix, mourned, epic, elegy, lament, sorrow, estrangement, incorruptible, entwined, requiem, warmongers, etc.

3. Compare the Alaskan Driving Out with the California Driving Out of China Men.

4. At the end of the story about Kau and Great Aunt, Kingston writes that the Great Aunt's return to Red China is a clue that the country of their heritage is not as bad as the stories imply. What does this reveal to the reader about the narrator and her understanding of Communist China?

5. How does the Wild Man end up in a Tampa Hospital for the insane? Tell what happens once he is there.

6. Explain why the people that meet Li Sao realize too late that he is the last righteous human being. What do the people do to get Li Sao to return to Earth? What are the results of the people's attempts?

7. What evidence in "The Wild Man of the Green Swamp" is there that shows the Wild Man's ingenuity?

8. Compare and contrast Uncle Bun's beliefs about the benefits of communism and his dreams of a Communist World and Father's political beliefs.

9. Analyze Kingston's narrative about Uncle Kau Goong and his elderly wife. Explain why Great Aunt goes to Hong Kong and then back to China. Describe Uncle Kau's response to Great Aunt's pleas to be together again. Students might suggest the importance of Kau's final words on the subject: "We belong here (America)!"

10. Describe the relationship between Lo Bun Sun and Sing Kay Ng.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Kingston provides several examples of the use of the color red by Chinese. What does the color red symbolize for Chinese people? In what ways do Chinese people integrate the color red into their lives?

Essay Topic 2

Identify times in Kingston's novel, China Men, when a character's expectations about Gold Mountain are not met. Compare and contrast characters' expectations with the reality they experience in America. Consider the plight of the Sojourners. Why do so many return to China? Why do some stay in America, leaving their families behind in a hostile China?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the first and last chapters in Kingston's China Men. Make a connection between the two chapters in the context of the novel. What message does "On Discovery" send? What message does "On Listening" send? What evidence supports the conclusions you drew about the connection between the opening and closing chapters?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,985 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample