Discussion Questions for A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang

1. The reviewer for The San Francisco Chronicle felt that it wasn’t the search for Yitian’s father or Yitian and Hanwen’s reunion that were the heart of the book, but that it’s “Tang’s vibrant, stirring descriptions of Communist China during the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath that grip, transport and beguile,” particularly the descriptions of their time studying for the gaokao.  Do you agree?
2. The reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly said that “the plot sometimes feels manufactured to produce moments of triumph and disaster,” but agreed that “While the turns are easy to anticipate, Yitian and Hanwen’s complex history makes this engrossing.”  Did you find the plot to be predictable?  Where?
3. The reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle felt that “Tang ties up every storyline so thoroughly toward the end, for example, that very little is left to the imagination. While some readers might find this approach appealing, it made me wonder how the book might’ve landed if just a few things on said map could’ve remained missing.”  Do you agree that everything is tied up neatly at the end?  What do you think this reviewer would have left open-ended?
4. The reviewer for BookPage felt that Hanwen’s “desire to help Yitian is prompted … by her not-so-secret love for him.”  Do you think that Hanwen loved Yitian when they were young?  Do you think he loved her?  Do you think either loved the other when they were reunited as adults?
5. The reviewer for BookPage argued that “Tang brings additional secondary characters to life, such Yitian’s beloved, broken grandfather and the unhappy girls who labor on the farm with Hanwen. The novel’s many teachers, police officers, clerks, shopkeepers and other bureaucrats are individuals and never interchangeable.”  Do you agree?
6. We often talk about male writers writing from a female character’s perspective, but this is a female writer writing over half the book from a male character’s perspective.  Did you think about this as you were reading?  Do you think she did a good job portraying a character of a different gender?  Do you think this question even matters anymore?
7. The reviewer for Little Village Magazine said, “We can trick ourselves into believing that this story is solely about Yitian, a young boy who risks everything to take the gaokao … and grows up to be a professor at an American college. It may actually be about Hanwen, a ‘sent-down youth’ … who, despite her drive and intelligence, consistently finds herself playing out the wishes of others, whether it be her husband, her mother or her government.”  Was Yitian the main character, or Hanwen, or were they equally important in the story?
8. Were you surprised that Yitian’s older brother went to such lengths to help him take the gaokao?  Why or why not?

For more questions, check out the resources from ReadingGroupGuides.

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