Story Summary
The Red Scarf Girl is an Autobiography written by Ji-li Jiang herself. Throughout the book she displays her life before, during and after China’s cultural revolution. The story begins with Ji-li talking about her family, and her status in school. She’s a motivated, hardworking person who hopes for a bright future. She also mentions the fact that she gets perfect scores on many of her tests, and her dream to go to Shi-Yi, one of the most accredited schools around. Later on in the book, communist leader Mao begins to take control much of China and he imposed his own set of rules and regulations, which had a large impact of Ji-li’s life. One day, for example, she was walking with her friend An Yi, and they both saw a man tormented …show more content…
The food in the book consisted of more asian dishes, such as noodles, stir fry, dumpling, and others. In China, most of the people speak Chinese, (Mandarin or Cantonese for example) as their primary language, and English as their secondary language, since Standard Mandarin is the official language in China. During the Cultural Revolution, western suits, ties and dresses were confiscated and ultimately banned. Many civilians wore khaki military clothing to demonstrate their revolutionary commitment. The Red Guards were a powerful and destructive political force during the Cultural Revolution. They wore army-style dark green uniforms with red armbands and carried a book of Mao's quotations. During the Cultural Revolution, the destruction of ancestral temples, village temples, city god temples and every other vestige of traditional practice was carried on with even greater enthusiasm and more thoroughness by the Communists. Many people practiced Christianity, Daoism, and Buddhism. Buddhism and Daoism had only a specialized and limited role in the religious life of most people. In the novel, Ji-li lived in a apartment, which she claimed to be well lit and large. Many people were living in similar housing, and it wasn’t surprising to see multiple generations living under one roof either. China’s governmental power was slowly transferred to dictator Mao Zedong, who implemented a strong set …show more content…
First, I was surprised to hear that during the Cultural Revolution, many schools were shut down or transformed into schools that tormented their teachers and promoted the Communist movement. Students were told to write bad comments about their teachers and sometimes, to even destroy the schools completely. I also learned how many people who had family relatives that owns or used to own land is deemed bad and a disgrace. I personally do not see what’s wrong with owning any type of land, and getting persecuted for it. Last but not least, I learned that farmers were told to stop farming and instead, do more factory work so that China can compete with large steel producing countries like England. This caused large famines, which resulted in many people dying from starvation and the loss of jobs, which could have been easily avoided. To conclude, there were many aspects of Mao’s historic Cultural Revolution that I learned.
Questions & Concerns about China’s Cultural Revolution While reading the book, I wondered why Mao decided to implement a policy that would harm China rather than help it. He killed the culture, and most of China’s economy during his power. In all, Mao’s plan to “modernize” the country ended up causing severe damage, which made no sense to me. In the book, I wasn’t able to understand why people continued to follow Mao Zedong’s power if they know that he was leading the country in the wrong
The Red Scarf Girl is an Autobiography written by Ji-li Jiang herself. Throughout the book she displays her life before, during and after China’s cultural revolution. The story begins with Ji-li talking about her family, and her status in school. She’s a motivated, hardworking person who hopes for a bright future. She also mentions the fact that she gets perfect scores on many of her tests, and her dream to go to Shi-Yi, one of the most accredited schools around. Later on in the book, communist leader Mao begins to take control much of China and he imposed his own set of rules and regulations, which had a large impact of Ji-li’s life. One day, for example, she was walking with her friend An Yi, and they both saw a man tormented …show more content…
The food in the book consisted of more asian dishes, such as noodles, stir fry, dumpling, and others. In China, most of the people speak Chinese, (Mandarin or Cantonese for example) as their primary language, and English as their secondary language, since Standard Mandarin is the official language in China. During the Cultural Revolution, western suits, ties and dresses were confiscated and ultimately banned. Many civilians wore khaki military clothing to demonstrate their revolutionary commitment. The Red Guards were a powerful and destructive political force during the Cultural Revolution. They wore army-style dark green uniforms with red armbands and carried a book of Mao's quotations. During the Cultural Revolution, the destruction of ancestral temples, village temples, city god temples and every other vestige of traditional practice was carried on with even greater enthusiasm and more thoroughness by the Communists. Many people practiced Christianity, Daoism, and Buddhism. Buddhism and Daoism had only a specialized and limited role in the religious life of most people. In the novel, Ji-li lived in a apartment, which she claimed to be well lit and large. Many people were living in similar housing, and it wasn’t surprising to see multiple generations living under one roof either. China’s governmental power was slowly transferred to dictator Mao Zedong, who implemented a strong set …show more content…
First, I was surprised to hear that during the Cultural Revolution, many schools were shut down or transformed into schools that tormented their teachers and promoted the Communist movement. Students were told to write bad comments about their teachers and sometimes, to even destroy the schools completely. I also learned how many people who had family relatives that owns or used to own land is deemed bad and a disgrace. I personally do not see what’s wrong with owning any type of land, and getting persecuted for it. Last but not least, I learned that farmers were told to stop farming and instead, do more factory work so that China can compete with large steel producing countries like England. This caused large famines, which resulted in many people dying from starvation and the loss of jobs, which could have been easily avoided. To conclude, there were many aspects of Mao’s historic Cultural Revolution that I learned.
Questions & Concerns about China’s Cultural Revolution While reading the book, I wondered why Mao decided to implement a policy that would harm China rather than help it. He killed the culture, and most of China’s economy during his power. In all, Mao’s plan to “modernize” the country ended up causing severe damage, which made no sense to me. In the book, I wasn’t able to understand why people continued to follow Mao Zedong’s power if they know that he was leading the country in the wrong