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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Phoebe's character move between the three countries represented on her show?

2. What space has Phoebe used to create her imaginary land?

3. What role does Older Brother play in the trial?

4. Where did Dorothy and Ming-Chen meet?

5. When the protagonist offers to play with Phoebe, where does she retreat?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what ways does Karen influence the protagonist to develop emotionally?

2. What is Older Brother's purpose in introducing People v Hall?

3. What does the protagonist believe he will gain and lose by staying with Phoebe and Karen?

4. What happens to Ming-Chen Wu when he finally gets the role of Sifu?

5. What does the protagonist come to understand about his father in the book's final "Act"?

6. What is Green's argument when she accuses the protagonist of narcissism?

7. What is the rhetorical purpose of the list of anti-Asian laws that begins "ACT VI: THE CASE OF THE MISSING ASIAN"?

8. In what ways does "ACT V: KUNG FU DAD" show that Phoebe's innocence and youth are protective?

9. How does Yu set the reader up to feel the maximum impact of the revelation of Phoebe's fifth "fear"?

10. What causes the protagonist to finally go in search of his family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you describe how the novel explores the idea of the "authentic" versus the "performative" self and then offer an analysis of the extent to which this idea applies only to minorities versus applying more generally to the human condition. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you explore the rhetorical purpose of the sexual tension between Green and Turner. What commentary on both race and performance does it make? Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write a thesis-driven essay in which you analyze the ambitions of Willis Wu. What are his ambitions, and where do they come from? At what point do his ambitions cease being merely about wanting material security (a safe and comfortable place to live, enough food to eat, etc.) and start to be about something more intangible (ego, status, etc.) Are these ambitions inherent in his personality, or are his ideas about success derived from culture, family, or some other source? Be sure to provide textual support for your claims.

(see the answer keys)

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