The Ghost Bride Essay Questions

How does Li Lan's father fail in his relationship with his daughter?

Rather than take care of and prioritize Li Lan, her father is incapable of rising above his past tragedy to attend to his future. Even though losing Li Lan's mother was awful, Li Lan's father's choice to retreat from society and his addiction to opium make life difficult for Li Lan in the extreme. In many ways, Li Lan almost having to become a ghost bride is his fault: because he did not provide for her financially or socially, Li Lan is limited in her options for the future. Sadly, while Liam Tian Ching and the Lim family are the villains of this book, it is Li Lan's father that makes her vulnerable.

How does this novel explore the complex tensions of Chinese tradition and European modernity?

The novel is set in British Malaya, during a time when the British had control of what is now Malaysia, in a fairly prosperous port town. As a Chinese immigrant family, the Pan family is already caught between these two worlds of a Europe seeking to modernize by expanding its empire and a China (as well as Malaya) that was seeking to retain its traditions. But these complications become even sharper as Li Lan must navigate traditional elements of Chinese culture, like the ghost marriage and the spirit world, while still being in a world that's heavily affected by the West, which can clearly be seen in the character of Tian Bai. Despite European modernity being nominally in control, however, Li Lan's life comes to be defined by elements from Chinese tradition more than anything else.

Why is it hard to give this novel a simple genre classification?

Even though this novel is set in 1890s Malacca, which is a historical setting, and features the real tradition of ghost marriage, there are also fantasy elements to the story. At first, this does appear to be simply a historical fiction novel, but the presence of ghosts, spirit worlds, and dragons make it hard to call it simple historical fiction. However, these are not things that Choo made up: they are based on real Chinese and Malaysian cultural beliefs. Therefore, it's also not quite right to classify it as only fantasy, since the "fantasy" elements correspond to traditional cultural views.

What interesting questions does this book raise about knowledge, particularly as it applies to the idea of sight?

There are two kinds of people in this novel. First, there are people like Tian Bai, who believe that knowledge comes from what can be "proven" and visually perceived. Tian Bai does not believe in the supernatural, even though he is willing to bend to tradition occasionally. His love of clocks comes from the fact that they can be completely known—that is, that he can easily take apart and put them back together again. For him, there is little to know beyond what people can see for themselves. However, characters like Amah, the medium, and Old Wong suggest that this kind of knowledge and even something like sight is far from straightforward. Knowledge, for them, can come from many mysterious, unexpected, and often supernatural sources.

How does Li Lan's decision to choose Er Lang over Tian Bai reflect her journey to maturity in the novel?

At the beginning of the novel, Li Lan is young and inexperienced: she believes that love is simple. Her infatuation with Tian Bai, while genuine, occurs upon meeting him only a couple times. Despite them sharing a genuine affection, they don't really know each other, and as Li Lan matures, she shows herself to be a very different person than either she or Tian Bai had thought. Her adventures in the spirit world, which are a sort of coming-of-age for her, also make her the kind of woman that should be with someone like Er Lang instead of Tian Bai. As a mature woman, she is no longer content to limit herself and Tian Bai to a traditional marriage, even if she would have the option to join Er Lang later.