Introduction

From the author of the 2007 Orange Prize finalist A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers comes a wholly original and thoroughly captivating coming-of-age story that follows a bright, impassioned young woman as she rushes headlong into the maelstrom of a rapidly changing Beijing to chase her dreams. Twenty-one year old Fenfang Wang has traveled one thousand eight hundred miles to seek her fortune in contemporary urban Beijing, and has no desire to return to the drudgery of the sweet potato fields back home. However, Fenfang is ill-prepared for what greets her: a Communist regime that has outworn its welcome, a city under rampant destruction and slap-dash development, and a sexist attitude seemingly more in keeping with her peasant upbringing than the country’s progressive capital. Yet Fenfang is determined to live a modern life. With courage and purpose, she forges ahead, and soon lands a job as a film extra. While playing roles like woman-walking-over-the bridge and waitress-wiping-a-table help her eke out a meager living, Fenfang comes under the spell of two unsuitable young men, keeps her cupboard stocked with UFO noodles, and after mastering the fever and tumult of the city, ultimately finds her true independence in the one place she never expected. At once wry and moving, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth gives us a clear-eyed glimpse into the precarious and fragile state of China’s new identity and asserts Xiaolu Guo as her generation’s voice of modern China.

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Excerpt

fragment 1

FENFANG'S ATTRIBUTES, AS RECORDED ON A PIECE
OF PAPER

My youth began when I was twenty-one. At least, that's when I decided it began. That was when I started to think that all those shiny things in life--some of them might possibly be for me.

If you think twenty-one sounds a bit late for youth to start, just think about the average Chinese peasant, who leaps straight from childhood to middle age with nothing in between. If I was going to miss out on anything, it was middle age. Be young or die. That was my plan. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. The novel is divided, as the title suggests, into twenty short chapters with small black and white photographs scattered throughout the text. Why do you think the author chose this structure to relate her heroine's story? Discuss what you think the purpose of the photographs might be.

2. Fenfang Wang leaves her rural home in hopes of capturing “bright, shiny things” in the big city. How is her journey similar or dissimilar to that of a young American woman who moves from the countryside to the city in hopes of making it big? Do you know people who have followed the same journey? In what ways do you think the cultural differences between China and America impact upon their individual experiences?

3. What is the significance of “ravenous” of the title? How does Fenfang go about satiating those needs?

4. When Fenfang arrives in Beijing, she has little money and nowhere to go. She finds herself outside a small house of a woman and her daughter, whom we see run out of the house only to get run over by a truck. Fenfang moves into their empty home. Do you find that shocking? Do you believe she's an aggressive opportunist or do you think there is something more subtle happening - an underlying will to survive? Do you think her attitudes are universal?

5. As a child Fenfang watched her mother toil in the sweet potato fields day after day; by the age of seventeen, she knows that that is not the life she wants for herself. Do you think she is sympathetic to her mother's fate? How does her view of her mother change by the end of the book?

6. Both Fenfang and Beijing are trying to come of age extremely quickly. Yet Fenfang seems overwhelmed navigating the chaos of the capital city. In what ways does her sorrow come out in the story? Why do you think a woman of Fenfang's determination finds the city so challenging?

7. Fenfang devours western films and literature. Discuss why you believe her passion for French films and American literature could be more than a reflection of the widespread popularity of western culture abroad.

8. Fenfang's boyfriend from Boston says that “China is better at being American than America.” What do you think he means by that? What are the examples in the novel that support his statement?

9. Fenfang says: “You can check any Chinese dictionary, there's no word for 'romance.' We say 'Lo Man,' copying the English pronunciation.” Did you find this observation surprising? In which ways do you think this fundamental difference in language may have contributed to Fenfang's difficulties with men and with love in general?

10. The final words of the novel are spoken by Fenfang addressing herself: “You must take care of your life.” In what ways do they sum up what the novel is about? Do you think she will take care of herself or do you see her continuing her headstrong approach to living?

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