Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Consider the differences between agrarian and industrial communities. How do the types of societies that form around them vary? What role does technology play in shaping their economies?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer question invites students to consider the historical and sociological contexts of Hua’s story: the urban-rural divide in mid-20th century Chinese society. Prior to the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China was historically a nation of farmers, where agricultural output was the primary source of income for communities. As a result, Chinese society and folklore placed a high importance on The Connection Between Humans and Animals. After 1949, government policies introduced a series of regulations related to production, output, and restructuring of individual farming in relation to collectivism, within the context of the theme Political Systems and Class Divides. However, as Hua’s novel indicates, these programs were largely unsuccessful and even harmful to agrarian communities in China. Before students respond to the prompt, consider introducing and discussing a series of photographs that demonstrate the differences between agrarian and industrial communities in general.