Fan Shen's Personal Ambition

Fan Shen began as a good little revolutionary. Revolution was his birthright, a heritage passed down to him by his family. A legacy denoted in his name, “’Fan,’ my given name, means ‘ordinary—one of millions of working people,’” because only working people could be true revolutionaries.” The indoctrination of the Chinese Communist Party caused generations of Chinese to partake in unnecessary violence and hardship, and Fan Shen was no exception. However, he resisted the Communist Party. Fan Shen developed hatred toward the Communist Party which led to his resistance and escape. Communism inflicted many terrors onto Fan Shen and his hatred is a result of the Party stifling ambition, running an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy, oppressing individual thought, and causing personal loss. Personal Ambition is an evil concept to the Communist Party. Fan Shen’s personal ambition, and the stifling of its growth, is one of the reasons he comes to hate the Communist Party. Promotion to Barefoot Doctor gave Fan Shen hope that he …show more content…
Fan Shen experienced this a myriad of times. Often, to achieve anything one had to bribe a Party leader. Shen found this in Uncle Cricket. Early on, the Beijing Kids discovered that Uncle Cricket was sleeping with many of the village girls, including Big Quilt. Because of this, Big Quilt was given special treatment, and eventually sent away from the village, due to pregnancy. Uncle Cricket also manipulated Smoking Devil to stay in the village. Later, Fan Shen began to use the corrupt bureaucracy to his advantage. By working the system, Fan Shen was moved to a factory job, using his connection with Moon Face. He also used many connections later to get his passport and exit slip to escape China. Obtaining the exit slip, which usually took eight to twelve months, was only possible through bribery of three different department