A Thousand Years of Good Prayers Themes

The characters in “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” spend much of the story finding ways to communicate with each other across various barriers—linguistic, emotional, and cultural. The story suggests that while such barriers can prevent people from communicating with one another, true understanding ultimately transcends language. Mr. Shi’s relationships demonstrate that speaking a common language, especially when emotional and cultural barriers interfere, does not mean that people always understand each other. With his…

For both Mr. Shi and his daughter, intimacy with and love for a person who is not their spouse come into conflict with their marriages. Intimacy is inherently tied to communication: only characters who can talk to each other freely and feel that they understand each other in the story achieve true intimacy. Mr. Shi’s daughter, for example, feels intimate with her lover because they can speak English together, while she never wanted to…

The three main characters in “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers”—Mr. Shi, his daughter, and Madam—are all either visitors or immigrants to America: Mr. Shi is only there to see his daughter, while his daughter and Madam have moved there permanently. As the story demonstrates, America is a place where immigrants and visitors are subjected to conflicting pressures and desires: both to assimilate and to maintain their native languages, customs, and…