The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai

The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai
Reading Group Questions

1. How do you think your life would change if you suddenly lost the ability to speak your primary language? Would you still be able to hold your current job? How would your relationships with your loved ones change?

2. Rosalyn comes to Shanghai partly as a result of her divorce. She says that in Shanghai, she has “found a whole new solitude.” What else does Rosalyn find in Shanghai?

3. What do you imagine Rosalyn to be like in her normal life, in the United States? Do people behave differently when they travel? Have you ever taken the opportunity to behave differently when you were away from familiar surroundings?

4. Meiling thinks: “Love is about taking care of someone without being asked, about sacrificing yourself…words have nothing to do with love. [But] perhaps in English, with an American woman, the concept of love is entirely different. Perhaps love, in a different language, rushes through and spills out more easily, the words carrying the feelings along.” How might Meiling’s concept of love differ from Rosalyn’s? Do you think the concept of love is different in different languages and different cultures? Have you ever had an experience where love meant different things for you and someone you were close to?

5. Professor Li passes away in the middle of the novel. Would the lives of Li Jing, Meiling, and Rosalyn been different if Professor Li stayed alive? Why might his presence have made a difference in their lives?

6. After Li Jing’s accident, Meiling tries to keep his company afloat, but does not spend a lot of time with Li Jing himself. Discuss the relationship between Meiling and Li Jing after the accident. Why do you think they grow apart? What could each of them have done to change this?

7. Meiling invites Rosalyn to come to a spa with her. Over the course of the afternoon, each woman judges the other harshly. Are Meiling and Rosalyn’s differences the result of different cultures, different languages, or different personalities? Why can they not get through to each other despite the presence of Alan the translator?

8. At the end of the book, Meiling and Li Jing seem to reach a tentative reconciliation. Do you think they would have stayed together if they didn’t have a child together? What do you think there relationship will be like going forward?