Q1. Can Yang's novel be considered an artifact of Asian Diaspora Literature? How?
Q2. Describe Yang's writing style. What does Yang say about learning the English language, and how do her own language choices reflect her ethnicity?
Q3. When the Yangs cross the Mekong, they're forced to leave their family photos behind. How do belongings carry meaning in The Latehomecomer? What other objects take on significance beyond their utility in the book?
Q4. The United States was populated by colonized Native peoples, voluntary migrants, refugees whose migration was coerced by conditions at home, and slaves. How do the complexity of our origin stories and learning about the conditions under which Hmong families like the Yangs arrived change your under-standing of citizenship, Americanness, and home?
Q5. Yang describes a very hostile reception from Americans upon arriving in the United States, such as shouting names or making rude gestures, which made adjustment to the United States unnecessarily difficult. How might we best control ignorant and hateful responses such as these? Should they be criminalized? How do we balance free speech against the right to be free from hateful acts? Should there be a ban on hate speech? In the U.S.? Worldwide?