Folding Beijing

I also noticed parallels with The Hunger Games, which adds to the level of engagement of this story. As you pointed out, both The Hunger Games and Folding Beijing speak to the stratification of society. I think this would spark interesting discussion about how this relates to income inequality in our own society. In many ways people of lower socioeconomic status do have higher physical risk, like in The Hunger Games, only instead of being in danger from the games, they are in danger of hunger, homelessness, and violence. They also do have less time in the day, like Folding Beijing, because they need to devote more hours to work, transportation, caring for dependents, etc. One thing I will note is that in Folding Beijing there is the possibility of social mobility, while in The Hunger Games this doesn't really happen. I wonder what students would think is more accurate to real life - how do they view social mobility in our society? Is it possible or impossible?