Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

was by banning books that had any anticommunist ideas, practically every book. He also sent intellectuals to rural villages be “reeducated” through hard labor. In fact, he once stated, “To read too many books is harmful.” The novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress challenges Mao’s ideology and creates an argument about the effect of books on people’s personalities and actions when the main characters uncover a stash of banned books that they steal and read, then digest their Western…

The purpose of most novels are to convey a message to the reader, to me the novel “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” was very successful at this. I don’t know the name of the main character but I assume it’s the author as it refers to himself by the use of “me”, “my” and “I”. I felt that the strong connection between the two main characters, Luo and the author was extremely significant. Their friendship displayed the strongest loyalty where they would sacrifice their lives for each other…

boys to watch the movies, so they could retell the movie’s plot to the villagers. The headman was really impressed by their first performance, allowing the boys to watch more movies. Why on their mission to watch movies. They came across the Little Seamstress daughter of a tailor from the village nex to them. Luo was in love with her. As a part of their job and to be re-education, Luo, and his friend was allowed to the Local coal Mine. If I was in their situation, I would have change a…

From 1966 to 1976, China was in the grip of the Cultural Revolution, a movement order by Chairman Mao Zedong to eliminate traditional forms of Chinese culture and fight off capitalism in order to promote communism. Crimes were harshly punished, teachers were forced to walk the streets in dunce hats while all the students were forced to go to re-education camps. The narrator and his best friend Luo were both sent to the base of Phoenix of the Sky mountain for their re-education in which their…

into her despairing lover’s arms, she grabbed her bundle and strode off down the path” (Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, 184). Lou has given all his love and more to the Little Seamstress, however, she only stayed long enough to gain the knowledge she desired for him and left him shattered in the end. This reveals the heap of distress on Lou’s shoulders as a result of the Little Seamstress’s mask finally crumbling into dust. She grew close to him to gain the information she…