Early in the novel, Lily confesses that she was desperate to be loved. Discuss the various forms of love that occur within Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and the ways in which Lily herself expresses various types of love.

Lily’s mother quotes an old saying, “If a daughter doesn’t marry out, she’s not valuable; if fire doesn’t raze the mountain, the land will not be fertile” (79). Discuss the relationship between fertility and female suffering in the world of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. 

The society depicted in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is one in which gender roles are firmly defined and enforced. Discuss three characters whose behavior exceeds or subverts these gender norms.