The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 1

Story 2

Story 3

Story 4

Story 5

Story 6

Story 7

Story 8

Story 9

Story 10

Story 11

Story 12

Story 13

Story 14

Story 15

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Storytelling as a Universal Constant

Starting in the preface, author Ken Liu discusses the importance of storytelling: “We spend our entire lives trying to tell stories about ourselves—they’re the essence of memory. It is how we make living in this unfeeling, accidental universe tolerable” (vii). He sees writing as a brief connection of two minds that are very disparate.

This theme continues in several important stories, beginning with “The Bookmaking Habit of Select Species,” in which he discusses how every species passes down information: “Everyone makes books” (1). Likewise, in “The Waves,” humans evolve into different forms, yet in every form they return to the protagonist, Maggie, who tells stories from the beginning of time. She says, “We humans have always relied on stories to keep the fear of the unknown at bay” (220). In “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,” a forbidden book tells a story that the Manchu conquerors do want known, and as a result Tian Haoli is tortured.

In “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary,” Evan Wei says in a speech, “We are a species that loves narrative, but we have also been taught not to trust an individual speaker” (434). Narratives are how we make sense of the world, and thus are important to understanding the past. That’s why Wei thinks it is so important to bring victims’ relatives back in time, as compared to historians or researchers. They may not be able to tell the details of a Pingfang official’s uniform, but they can personalize the narrative.

The Essence of Memory and Erasure of the Past

A closely related theme to storytelling is that of the essence of memory, and—in several tales—the erasure of memory, often for political reasons. In “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,” the Monkey King says, “But the past lives on in the form of memories, and those in power are always going to want to erase and silence the past, to bury the ghosts” (380).

In “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary,” Evan’s wife Akemi Kirino says that being American is about leaving your past behind, but, “[y]ou can no more leave behind your past than you can leave behind your skin” (446).

Memory is also powerful, in that it connects one to previous cultures and other elements of humanity, as in “The Waves.” Or as in “The Paper Menagerie,” when Jack’s remembers his mother on the Chinese day of the dead, bringing her words and her magic back to life. In “Simulacrum,” the essence of memory is reflected in the ways both characters freeze time—Anna remembers negative things about her father, while Paul tries to capture Anna at a time when she still loved him. In “Good Hunting,” the remembrance of magic is what leads Yan to seek transformation through technology, and in “Mono No Aware,” Hiroto’s remembrance of the lessons from his past are what drives him to sacrifice himself for others.

“A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Railroad” also deals with erasure of the past, in the form of events that one man remembers. Eventually, he performs a small act of civil disobedience on a memorial in order to make sure that injustice isn’t quite forgotten. In “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,” the forbidden book captures an important past incident and links it to issues of justice: “But the past lives on in the form of memories, and those in power are always going to want to erase and silence the past, to bury the ghosts. Now that you know about the past, you’re no longer an innocent bystander” (380).

The Immigrant Experience in America

Several of the characters in this book’s stories are immigrants, or have immigrants in their family history. While many of the issues these narratives cover apply to all immigrants, the symbols and motifs within them point particularly to the experience of Asian immigrants. The issues of prejudice, diversity, the spirit of the individual apply more largely to the immigration experience in America.

In “The Paper Menagerie,” the main character struggles with his partial identity that has resulted in prejudicial treatment from people in his community, thanks to his mother’s mail-order bride background.

“All the Flavors,” has a more optimistic take on immigration, as the Chinese miners appreciate America as having a distinctive spirit. In that tale, the symbol of American whiskey is used to define the feel of the miners’ adopted country. Though the Chinamen encounter prejudice, Americans adopt some of the customs of the Chinese miners.

In “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary,” aspects of Evan Wei’s personality, and his ultimate fate, are influenced both by his Chinese heritage and his American background; the idea of the individual looms large in the scientist’s work and feeds into why he made the decisions he did in order to bring the injustices of Pingfang to light. One of his critics noted in the narrative, “He sacrificed the history of the Chinese people, without their consent, for a Western ideal” (426). In that way, Wei struggles with reconciling the competing demands of his both his cultures and that of his wife, who is Japanese.