When We Were Orphans
E480702
When We Were Orphans is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that blends mystery and psychological drama as it follows an English detective revisiting his childhood in Shanghai to uncover the truth about his parents’ disappearance.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| When We Were Orphans canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4946400 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: When We Were Orphans Context triple: [Kazuo Ishiguro, notableWork, When We Were Orphans]
-
A.
Song for Orphans
"Song for Orphans" is a reflective, lyrically rich rock song by Bruce Springsteen that revisits themes of youth, faith, and idealism, featured on his 2020 album "Letter to You."
-
B.
First They Killed My Father
First They Killed My Father is a biographical war drama film depicting a Cambodian child's harrowing experiences under the Khmer Rouge regime, adapted from Loung Ung's memoir.
-
C.
The Two Orphans
The Two Orphans is a 19th-century French melodramatic play by Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Cormon, best known for its story of two sisters separated and endangered during the turmoil of the French Revolution and for inspiring numerous stage and film adaptations.
-
D.
The Seamstress
The Seamstress is a painting by French Post-Impressionist artist Édouard Vuillard, known for its intimate domestic interior and subtle, decorative use of color and pattern.
-
E.
We Were All Uprooted
"We Were All Uprooted" is an atmospheric, synthesizer-driven instrumental track by Vangelis, featured on his 1973 album "Earth."
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: When We Were Orphans Target entity description: When We Were Orphans is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that blends mystery and psychological drama as it follows an English detective revisiting his childhood in Shanghai to uncover the truth about his parents’ disappearance.
-
A.
Song for Orphans
"Song for Orphans" is a reflective, lyrically rich rock song by Bruce Springsteen that revisits themes of youth, faith, and idealism, featured on his 2020 album "Letter to You."
-
B.
First They Killed My Father
First They Killed My Father is a biographical war drama film depicting a Cambodian child's harrowing experiences under the Khmer Rouge regime, adapted from Loung Ung's memoir.
-
C.
The Two Orphans
The Two Orphans is a 19th-century French melodramatic play by Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Cormon, best known for its story of two sisters separated and endangered during the turmoil of the French Revolution and for inspiring numerous stage and film adaptations.
-
D.
The Seamstress
The Seamstress is a painting by French Post-Impressionist artist Édouard Vuillard, known for its intimate domestic interior and subtle, decorative use of color and pattern.
-
E.
We Were All Uprooted
"We Were All Uprooted" is an atmospheric, synthesizer-driven instrumental track by Vangelis, featured on his 1973 album "Earth."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
novel ⓘ |
| author | Kazuo Ishiguro NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| authorBirthplace | Nagasaki, Japan NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| authorNationality | British ⓘ |
| awardNominationYear | 2000 ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| followedBy | Never Let Me Go NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
detective fiction
ⓘ
historical novel ⓘ mystery novel ⓘ psychological fiction ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation | radio drama adaptation ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 9780571205622 ⓘ |
| hasLiteraryAwardNomination | Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryStyle |
introspective
ⓘ
unreliable narration ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Christopher Banks NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| market | international ⓘ |
| mediaType |
hardcover
ⓘ
paperback ⓘ print ⓘ |
| narrativePointOfView | first-person ⓘ |
| narrativeStructure | nonlinear timeline ⓘ |
| notableFor |
ambiguous treatment of memory and reality
ⓘ
blending detective fiction with psychological exploration ⓘ |
| partOf | Kazuo Ishiguro bibliography ⓘ |
| precededBy | The Unconsoled NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | detective ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2000 ⓘ |
| publisher |
Alfred A. Knopf
ⓘ
Faber and Faber NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| settingLocation |
London, England
ⓘ
surface form:
London
Shanghai NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| settingPeriod |
Second Sino-Japanese War
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
early 20th century ⓘ |
| theme |
childhood trauma
ⓘ
colonialism ⓘ displacement ⓘ identity ⓘ loss ⓘ memory ⓘ unreliable memory ⓘ war ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: When We Were Orphans Description of subject: When We Were Orphans is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that blends mystery and psychological drama as it follows an English detective revisiting his childhood in Shanghai to uncover the truth about his parents’ disappearance.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.