Little Chinese Seamstress

From 1966 to 1976 in China, Chairman Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution, a sociopolitical movement to purge China of capitalist and traditional ideas to preserve communism. One of many means by which Mao attempted to eradicate these ideas 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 ideas, …show more content…
The miseries of reeducation in which Luo and the narrator get stuck are sometimes horrendous and influence them to seek out something that isn’t so bland. Instead of losing their intelligence and becoming trained to do hard labor as Mao intended, Luo and the narrator are even more hungry for knowledge than before reeducation, so they seek out the stash of books. Upon discovering Four-Eyes’ suitcase of books before they snatch them, the narrator makes clear that all he feels is “loathing for everyone who kept these books from [them]” (Sijie 99). The “loathing” that the narrator feels applies to the government, specially Mao, for keeping books from them and suppressing their knowledge and ability to think. The fact that the narrator wants to be free-spirited and self-thinking rather than a communist drone adds to the plethoric miseries reeducation engenders. Further into the novel, Luo and the narrator meet a woman known as the little seamstress. She is the prettiest girl on the …show more content…
Shortly after Balzac’s ideas reach Luo and the narrator, Luo “[makes] love [to the seamstress] […]. She was a virgin and her blood dripped onto the leaves scattered underneath […] [They made love] like horses” (Sijie 60). As the government fights to quiet Luo’s voice, he returns the proletariat’s punches by rebelling in ways such as making love “like horses” since he wants to be free like the Westerners in Balzac’s novels. When he swims with the seamstress by a waterfall, she catches a tortoise and Luo tattoos its shell with his pen knife. As he releases the tortoise, he wonders, “Who will ever release me from this mountain?” (Sijie 140). Shortly after Luo becomes pensive and reflects on his situation, a turning point occurs. Luo and the other characters realize that if they want to escape their fate, they must take actions into their own hands. The little seamstress is the one who sees her fate clearest and acts the most drastically. Long after Luo and the narrator expose the seamstress to Western literature and the ideas are able to resonate with her, she “[takes] off like a bird” to go to the city and “[learns] one thing from Balzac: that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price” (Sijie 184). The seamstress goes from taking pride in her roots as a mountain girl to wanting to dissolve her