94 pages • 3 hours read
Adeline Yen MahFalling Leaves
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Prologue-Chapter 4
Reading Check
1. Who is not invited to visit their father’s banker in the prologue and why?
2. How does Adeline’s mother die?
3. What business does Adeline’s father begin in Tianjin?
4. Aunt Baba prepares Adeline for what by the end of Chapter 4?
Multiple Choice
1. Why should the children be suspicious that Niang is lying about their father’s will?
A) Niang had already spent their inheritance.
B) Their father shared his will with them before he died.
C) Niang wants to control the amounts they each will receive.
D) Their father had been a man of great wealth and substance.
2. What did Adeline’s Great Aunt do to warrant the name Gong Gong (“Grand Uncle”)?
A) She wore men’s clothes and acted as a businessman.
B) She established a successful women’s bank run by women for women.
C) She joined the army and fought in the Opium War.
D) She founded an all-girls boarding school to teach women’s rights.
3. What can be inferred from Joseph’s decision to keep Ren at home after she gives birth?
A) He believes she is being melodramatic about her symptoms.
B) He believes his wealth and status will provide her with better care than a hospital.
C) His frugality is partially to blame for her death.
D) He blames the doctor for her sickness and subsequent death.
4. Why did Joseph marry Jeanne Prosperi?
A) A young European wife would raise his social status.
B) He needed a mother for his children.
C) A French citizen would bring more wealth to the household.
D) He needed to legitimatize their affair.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Give one example of how the theme Gender Hierarchies and Female Struggle is revealed in these early chapters.
2. Who are Adeline’s stepsiblings?
3. Why is Shanghai known as “The Paris of the Orient”?
4. How is Niang’s true character revealed?
Chapters 5-8
Reading Check
1. What happens to Adeline during the Civil War in 1948?
2. Which sibling does Adeline grow closest too, and why?
3. What event signifies the end of Adeline’s carefree childhood?
4. Why does Aunt Baba return to work?
Multiple Choice
1. Who reunites Adeline with her family in Hong Kong after Tianjin is liberated?
A) Aunt Baba, Joseph’s sister
B) Ye Ye, Adeline’s grandfather
C) Gregory, Adeline’s older brother
D) Aunt Reine, Niang’s sister
2. What is Miss Chien’s role in the family?
A) governess and spy
B) Niang’s school friend
C) nanny and housekeeper
D) cook and seamstress
3. What happens when Joseph and Niang leave Aunt Baba in charge of the family?
A) Everyone gets sick and is miserable.
B) Everyone is happy and has fun.
C) Adeline gets hurt and is hospitalized.
D) Adeline brings home a puppy.
4. Adeline names her duckling PLT, which stands for:
A) Princess Long Tang
B) Pretty Loved Thing
C) Perfectly Lovely Toy
D) Precious Little Treasure
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. After her grandmother dies, Adeline’s family moves to Shanghai. Describe the household caste system Niang establishes.
2. Give one example of how the theme Strength Through Storytelling is developed in Chapters 5-8?
3. How do historical events, such as the civil war between the Nationalists and Communists, parallel events in Adeline’s own life?
4. Why is Adeline considered bad luck?
Chapters 9-12
Reading Check
1. Where is Adeline living at the beginning of Chapter 9?
2. What happens to Ye Ye after moving to Hong Kong?
3. Why is Lydia’s husband Samuel arrested?
4. How does Adeline earn her father’s esteem in Chapter 11?
Multiple Choice
1. Which one of Adeline’s siblings dies from bulbar polio contracted from eating contaminated strawberries?
A) Susan
B) James
C) Franklin
D) Edgar
2. Who is Mary Suen?
A) Adeline’s best friend
B) Lydia’s best friend
C) Aunt Baba’s assistant
D) Joseph’s assistant
3. How does Aunt Baba learn of Ye Ye’s death?
A) by reading his obituary in the newspaper
B) through a letter from Joseph’s employee
C) Niang calls her with the news
D) from Adeline when she visits her at school
4. Who visits Adeline when she becomes very ill?
A) Niang
B) Aunt Baba
C) Joseph
D) Lydia
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does the librarian call Adeline the “scholar”?
2. Joseph allows Adeline to go where and study what?
3. Why does Niang become crueler after her child’s death?
4. Why is life unpleasant for Ye Ye in Hong Kong?
Chapters 13-16
Reading Check
1. What was Adeline’s experience with Lady Ternan?
2. Who does Adeline begin a secret relationship with at school?
3. Where does Adeline work after returning to Hong Kong?
4. How does Adeline pay for a plane ticket to America?
Multiple Choice
1. Who helps Adeline find a job in America?
A) H.H. Tien
B) Martin Ching
C) Karl Decker
D) Professor McFadden
2. What do the male students called the female students at Oxford?
A) DARs
B) DAMs
C) DRAs
D) DMAs
3. What job does Adeline turn down to please her father?
A) Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
B) Lead Nurse in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
C) Assistant Lecturer at Hong Kong University Medical School
D) Professor of Medicine at Hong Kong University Medical School
4. What happens to Adeline’s friend H.H. Tien when he returns to China?
A) He finds a great job at Hong Kong University.
B) He lives in poverty on the streets.
C) He marries but never has children.
D) He is imprisoned and commits suicide.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Adeline feel like a “fish swimming in a cauldron” when she moves back to Hong Kong?
2. Why does Adeline return to Hong Kong after finishing medical school?
3. What effect did the Cultural Revolution have on Adeline?
4. Give one example of how the theme Racism and Discrimination is developed in these chapters (13-16).
Chapters 17-20
Reading Check
1. Once settled in America, who does Adeline marry?
2. Who replaces Gregory as Joseph’s righthand man in Nigeria?
3. What happens to Aunt Baba in Shanghai in 1966?
4. How does Joseph remind Adeline of Ye Ye when he comes for a visit?
Multiple Choice
1. Why does Aunt Baba retire?
A) The strain from continuous travel far from home gives her an ulcer.
B) She embezzles enough money to live comfortably.
C) Gong Gong asks her to respectfully resign.
D) She is bedridden with sickness and can no longer work.
2. Who are the Red Guard?
A) militant students supporting Mao during the Cultural Revolution
B) anti-communist patrolmen seeking peace during the Cultural Revolution
C) fear-mongering soldiers who arrest Mao supporters during the Cultural Revolution
D) angry activists fighting against the Cultural Revolution
3. In California, Adeline takes on what position?
A) obstetric nurse at Orange County General Hospital
B) resident gynecologist at Orange Coast Community Hospital
C) assistant doctor of gynecology at Orange County General Hospital
D) obstetric anesthesiologist at Orange County Global Medical Center
4. Who is Mrs. Hsu?
A) Adeline’s neighbor
B) Byron’s aunt
C) Roger’s nanny
D) Bryon’s secretary
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Niang disown Susan?
2. What does it mean to be labeled a “black” hei liu lei?
3. What leads Adeline to divorce her husband?
4. How is the theme of the Female Struggle played out in Adeline's marriage?
Chapters 21-24
Reading Check
1. How does Joseph describe Adeline as a child when talking to her husband during a visit to California?
2. Who introduces Adeline to Robert Mah?
3. What favor does Lydia ask Adeline for?
4. Why does Aunt Baba radiate with happiness living in a dingy, foul-smelling single room?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Robert ask Adeline to call him?
A) Rob
B) Bob
C) Bert
D) Robert
2. What is Joseph diagnosed with at Stanford University?
A) Alzheimer’s disease
B) Parkinson’s disease
C) diabetes
D) cancer
3. Who are Tai-ling and Tai-way?
A) Robert’s children from his first marriage
B) Alcenith’s grandchildren
C) Roger’s half-siblings through Byron
D) Adeline’s niece and nephew through Lydia
4. When does Adeline return to China?
A) after Aunt Baba begs her for help during the Cultural Revolution
B) after her divorce when she wants get away from memories of her marriage
C) after Niang invites her to a family reunion
D) after Mao Zedong’s death and China reopens for tourism
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Adeline help Tai-ling and Tai-way?
2. How does Adeline’s marriage to her second husband differ from her relationships with Byron, Karl, and her family?
3. In what ways did Communism change the physical landscape of Shanghai?
4. What does Adeline do that temporarily soothes her relationship with Niang when Joseph and Niang visit California?
Chapters 25-28
Reading Check
1. How does Chapter 25 refer back to the Prologue?
2. Who invites Adeline to their wedding against family wishes?
3. What does Adeline finally recognize after being left out of Niang’s will?
4. What help does Niang ask of Adeline?
Multiple Choice
1. What does James secretly do after Hong Kong experiences political upheavals and demonstrations?
A) buys a house in California
B) buys a house in New York
C) buys a house in Toronto
D) buys a house in Montreal
2. What childhood prank inflicted on her by her brothers does Adeline recall after Niang’s funeral?
A) drinking orange juice mixed with urine
B) using her toothbrush to clean a toilet
C) eating dog treats that look like cookies
D) wetting the bed after they put her hand in warm water
3. What happened to all of Joseph’s money and assets that should have been divided among his children?
A) The bank seized everything for unpaid debts.
B) Niang transferred everything to her account.
C) All of his assets and accounts were frozen during the Cultural Revolution.
D) Everything was spent on his Alzheimer’s treatment and care.
4. What does Tai-way tell Adeline after his sister’s wedding?
A) The post-wedding dinner is canceled, and his family won’t talk to or visit Adeline.
B) Adeline’s help with his and his sister’s schooling is deeply appreciated by the family.
C) Lydia has forgiven Adeline and wishes to visit her with Tai-way.
D) There was a huge falling out and his sister will be annulling the marriage.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Adeline feel betrayed by her siblings after Niang dies?
2. What does Niang’s will and the changes to Joseph’s will come to symbolize?
3. Why is Adeline eager to help Niang, who is neither good nor kind, when she became sick?
Chapters 29-32
Reading Check
1. Which of Adeline’s siblings offers to share their inheritance with her?
2. Who does Adeline complain to about her disinheritance?
3. What does Adeline tell James when they meet at a restaurant after going through Niang’s things?
4. Why does Adeline visit Aunt Baba?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Adeline find in Niang’s desk?
A) deeds to her father’s estate and international assets
B) letters from Lydia besmirching Adeline’s character
C) Niang’s diary detailing her spiteful thoughts against her stepchildren
D) outstanding bills for Niang’s lavish parties and lifestyle
2. According to Gregory, why does Lydia demand Adeline confess the reason behind her disinheritance?
A) Hearing confessions makes her feel powerful.
B) Confessing will relieve the tension among the siblings.
C) She believes Adeline hurt Niang and wants the truth.
D) She doesn’t like secrets kept from the family.
3. What does the main character in Aunt Baba’s fairy tale do?
A) She grows in resentment and seeks revenge against her stepmother.
B) She marries the prince and lives happily ever after.
C) She harnesses her pain to create beautiful paintings.
D) She dies from her injury alone and unloved.
4. How does James respond to the truth behind Niang’s will?
A) He remains silent.
B) He willingly gives Adeline her fair share.
C) He suggests pursuing action in court to legally win Adeline’s share.
D) He thinks going to court to dispute the will lets Niang win.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is ironic about the objects discovered in Niang’s desk?
2. Why would Niang try to turn Adeline and James against each other through her will?
3. What can be inferred from Aunt Baba’s fairy tale?
4. How is the theme of The Redemptive Power of Love developed in the final chapters?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Prologue-Chapter 4
Reading Check
1. Susan is not at the banker’s for the reading of the will because she has been disinherited. (Prologue)
2. Ren dies from a high fever two weeks after giving birth to Adeline. (Chapter 3)
3. He opens Joseph Yen & Company, an import-export business. (Chapter 2)
4. Aunt Baba prepares Adeline for kindergarten by teaching her the Chinese alphabet. (Chapter 4)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Adeline's great aunt refuses the footbinding tradition, excels in school, and opens the Shanghai Women's Bank. Her Aunt Baba, likewise, excels in school, works for the Women's Bank, and sacrifices her own future to support her brother and his family. (Chapter 1-2)
2. Susan and Franklin (Chapter 4)
3. As an open port city, Shanghai boasts culture and architecture influenced from British, American, and French settlements. (Chapter 1)
4. Niang forces the servants to complete their duties during a harsh flood. (Chapter 4)
Chapters 5-8
Reading Check
1. She is left at a boarding school in Tianjin while her family moves to Hong Kong. (Chapter 8)
2. James and Adeline are unified in adversity against their brother Edgar. (Chapter 5)
3. Her grandmother unexpectedly passes away; the funeral marks the end of an era. (Chapter 5)
4. Ye Ye and Aunt Baba run out of money, and rather than beg Niang for some, Aunt Baba returns to work to gain financial freedom. (Chapter 7)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Joseph, Niang, Franklin, and Susan make up the "Holy of Holies" on the stately first floor, while Ye Ye, Aunt Baba, Adeline, and the other children occupy the second floor. (Chapter 6)
2. Adeline creates fairytales for herself to pass the time while Ye Ye practices his Chinese calligraphy. Both draw strength from these pursuits focusing on endurance. (Chapter 7)
3. Aunt Baba equates Niang's takeover of the family to the Communists takeover of Shanghai and Tianjin. The civil war creates divisions and forces people, like Adeline's family, to flee. Likewise, Adeline is separated from her family and only reunited after Tianjin is liberated. (Chapter 8)
4. Adeline is considered bad luck because her birth caused her mother's death. (Chapter 5)
Chapters 9-12
Reading Check
1. Sacred Heart Convent School and Orphanage (Chapter 9)
2. He develops diabetes and dies. (Chapter 10)
3. Samuel is accused of being a counterrevolutionary because his uncle was a well-known political figure. (Chapter 12)
4. Adeline is the first-prize winner of a playwriting contest, which is mentioned in a front-page article in the newspaper (Chapter 11)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Adeline spends most of her free time in the library, where she throws herself into her studies. (Chapter 9)
2. Joseph agrees to send Adeline to England with her brother James to study medicine, specifically obstetrics because women patients prefer women doctors. (Chapter 11)
3. Niang practically lived in the hospital room with Franklin when he became sick. Reassured that he would be fine, she left to attend a social event, and he died in her absence. Her resentment and guilt fueled her cruel behavior. (Chapter 12)
4. Ye Ye is a traditional Chinese man who wears embroidered jackets and skull caps; thus, he feels alienated in the modern city. Also, most of his grandchildren have moved away; he is alone. (Chapter 10)
Chapters 13-16
Reading Check
1. At tea with Lady Ternan, the sister-in-law of a Methodist missionary Adeline befriended on the voyage to England, who speaks to Adeline in pidgin English. (Chapter 13)
2. Her teacher, a German named Karl Decker (Chapter 13)
3. Adeline works as an intern in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hong Kong University hospital. (Chapter 15)
4. The Presbyterian Hospital advances her the money, deducted from her future paychecks, for the plane ticket, a common practice offered to overseas doctors. (Chapter 16)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Adeline feels frustrated at Sunday night dinners with her family. Her parents judge her and her siblings' actions and way of life while also expressing prejudiced yet hypocritical views about the materialistic Cantonese. (Chapter 15)
2. Adeline returns to Hong Kong to escape from her codependent relationship with Karl Decker, who follows her everywhere physically and mentally. (Chapter 14)
3. During the Cultural Revolution, many of her friends were forced out of Britain and returned to China where they suffered, some even dying by suicide. This shattered every fantasy Adeline had of her homeland and Communism, causing her to reconsider ever returning. (Chapter 14)
4. Adeline experiences racism and discrimination firsthand in England at school and then later in Hong Kong while working at the hospital. She even listens to her parents project racism and discrimination against others. (Chapter 13, 15)
Chapters 17-20
Reading Check
1. Byron Bai-lun Soon (Chapter 17)
2. James (Chapter 19)
3. Aunt Baba's home is invaded; she is injured and forced to live with a neighbor; she is labeled a “black” and her accounts are frozen. (Chapter 20)
4. Joseph looks “crestfallen and browbeaten” with sloping shoulders, drooping head, and folded hands—the weight of Niang's controlling behavior taking their toll. (Chapter 18)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Susan confronts Niang on her cold, abusive behavior. Niang is also jealous of Susan's position as a darling of society and her close relationship with Joseph. (Chapter 19)
2. The “blacks” were capitalists, landlords, counter-revolutionaries, and criminals in the eyes of the Communists. They were the lowest of the low. (Chapter 20)
3. Byron becomes angry, violent, and begins throwing things and endangering their son. Adeline, secure in her job and with her parent's blessing, divorces him and never sees him again. (Chapter 18)
4. Byron expects Adeline to be a subservient wife. His dishonesty and violence leave her feeling powerless. She is reminded that a lot of marriages in China are like that, but the woman is not equipped to survive apart from husband. Adeline's job gives her freedom. (Chapter 18)
Chapters 21-24
Reading Check
1. Joseph proudly remembers Adeline as “a bookworm who excelled in her studies” and who won the playwriting contest. (Chapter 22)
2. Alcenith Crawford, an older ophthalmologist who takes Adeline under her wing as a fellow female physician (Chapter 21)
3. Lydia asks Adeline to help her smooth over her own relationship with Niang. Adeline successfully persuades Niang to forgive Lydia. (Chapter 24)
4. Aunt Baba felt lucky to have her own room to herself. Others in the building had to share with two or three other family members. (Chapter 23)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Adeline helps them move to America. She pays for Tai-way's education at the University of Southern California and Indiana University and arranges for Tai-ling to attend the University of North Carolina on a scholarship. (Chapter 24)
2. Bob is supportive, caring, and provides the stability Adeline yearns for. (Chapter 21)
3. Many of the fanciful shops with ornate architecture have been replaced with plain, utilitarian structures. Stately dwellings have fallen into disrepair and are used as slums for the lower classes (Chapter 23)
4. Adeline pays for her father’s medical bills after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. (Chapter 22)
Chapters 25-28
Reading Check
1. Chapter 25 brings the story full circle with the death of Joseph and the reading of his will as first seen in the prologue. (Chapter 25)
2. Tai-ling invites Adeline to her wedding in St. Paul, MN. (Chapter 26)
3. Adeline realizes she never belonged within the Yen family. (Chapter 28)
4. Niang asks Adeline to help her move to the US, but her doctors say she is unfit to travel. (Chapter 27)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. James and all her siblings, except Susan, knew that Niang had disinherited Adeline but never said anything. James offers to give Adeline Niang's flat and reminds her that suing in court will go nowhere. This betrayal brings up bad memories of her childhood when her brothers tricked her into drinking urine-tainted orange juice. (Chapter 28)
2. The will symbolizes Niang's dominion over the family. First with rewriting Joseph's will then with her own, Niang stirs up antipathy between her stepchildren to maintain control over them. (Chapter 28)
3. Adeline yearns for Niang's approval just as she wanted her father's blessing. Caring for Niang on her sickbed would show how much she cared for her and may earn that approval. (Chapter 27)
Chapters 29-32
Reading Check
1. Gregory offers 10% of his portion while James offers 10% of his, including Niang's flat. Lydia offers 5% under duress but with conditions that Adeline does not accept. (Chapter 29)
2. Susan, who was similarly disinherited long ago (Chapter 29)
3. Adeline has found their father’s original will that included all the children except Susan, and they found hundreds of letters to Niang from Lydia, Samuel, and Tai-ling “inciting Niang to hate” Adeline. Before she leaves she also tells James she won't contest Niang's will; she won't allow Niang to triumph over her. (Chapter 31)
4. Aunt Baba is dying of colon cancer and bedridden after breaking her hip. (Chapter 32)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Lydia's slanderous letters are ironic because they wouldn't exist if Adeline hadn't helped smooth over Lydia's relationship with Niang. It's assumed Niang disinherited Adeline based on the slander and lies Lydia, Samuel, and Tai-ling shared in their letters. Therefore, Adeline caused her own disinheritance by bringing Lydia and Niang together. (Chapter 30)
2. Niang resented the special bond between James and Adeline, so she baited James into participating in her scheme of disinheriting Adeline. She would relish the idea of the legal battles and conflict between the siblings that her will would cause. (Chapter 31)
3. The story is an allegory for Adeline's life—and perhaps Aunt Baba's as well. The tale parallels how they endured and flourished in spite of the pain caused by their family. (Chapter 32)
4. After Niang dies, Adeline and her siblings clean out her apartment. Adeline finds her father's original will that left a portion to Adeline. Adeline delights in this because it shows he loved her and considered her part of the family. Adeline's husband also reminds her that she will always have him too. (Chapter 30)
