A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers – Tutorial 1

PART ONE: Formal matters

1. What is a novel? Could you compare and contrast the novel with short fiction in terms of
length, plot, characterization, setting, pacing, etc.?

2. What is a bildungsroman? What kind of development is Guo’s novel interested in? Is the
bildungsroman an effective form for Guo’s purpose?

3. Does it surprise you that the protagonist of the bildungsroman is a young woman instead of
a young man, as in the classical European bildungsroman? What might be the potential
significance of this?

4. Why do you think Guo chooses to write this novel in a dictionary form? Are dictionary
entries better at tracking the heroine’s linguistic progress than the conventional novelistic
“chapters”?

5. Take a quick look at one of the dictionary entries. How do Guo’s dictionary entries mimic but
also depart from the conventional dictionary entries? Why?
PART TWO: Thematic issues - English language and culture, and the idea of the English novel

1. In the entry, “hostel,” Zhuang says, “English words made only from twenty-six characters?
Are English a bit lazy or what? We have fifty thousand characters in Chinese.”

What are Zhuang’s early attitudes towards the English language? Could you give us some
textual examples to support your answers? (e.g. the entry, “beginner”)

2. In the entry, “fog,” Zhuang observes, “London, by appearance, so noble, respectable, but
when I follow these Alis, I find London a refugee camp.”

As a migrant in England, what is Zhuang’s initial impression of England? Who are the “Alis”
that Zhuang refers to? Why is London a “refugee camp” to her?

3. Why do you think Zhuang often mentions Chinese characters, idioms, and ideas in the
novel? Please cite an example from the novel and elaborate on the significance. (e.g. the
entry, “alien”)

4. Guo’s novel is titled “A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.” In what ways do you
think Zhuang is enacting cultural translation in the novel? To what extent are “concise” acts
of cultural translation possible?

5. How would you describe Zhuang’s English in the first few months of her stay in England?
How does Guo’s novel trouble your assumptions about English novels in general?