Mao Zedong

Plot Summary: The story takes place in China where the Leader of the country declares war on the sparrow population. Farmers blame sparrows for eating too many of China’s wheat grains and causing hardship for them. When Ming-Li learns of the plan to eliminate the sparrows by making noise for three consecutive days, she is afraid of the consequences of this terrible din. The next morning a tremendous noise of clanging gongs, crashing cymbals and exploding firecrackers wakes Ming-Li. She joins the…

The Tiananmen Massacre is not only one of the most influential events of all time but also one of the most censored. In April of 1989, over one hundred thousand students protested political reform in Beijing, China. As time went on, the protest grew exponentially as the students were joined by middle-class workers and peasants. By June, Tiananmen Square was flooded with millions of people; doctors, journalist, farmers, even soldiers were there. The only group not present were the political…

but still maintain the strong hold it had on the people while Mao was in power. A main point of similarity in the two periods is that of repression. During the Maoist period the rate of repression was extremely high.…

The Chinese Cultural Revolution in the mid 19th century brought a forced wave of reverting to traditional values, resulting in “approximately 12 million” (Allen “Dai”) people to be forced into villages. Because of the repetition aspect of history, many writers have written about concepts and ideas that people who are currently suffering will relate to. When writing about issues, authors tend to allude to other literature works. Relying on other authors to help explain characters’ desires or…

When I saw the title “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”, I know that this book will definitely have interesting information about Chinese cultures for movie adaptation. The book has two fascinating point that could be used in today’s life. Even though the book is categorized in fiction, but it including real and factual historic details about Chinese cultures. For example, Chinese ladies had the weird beliefs that having small feet made them look more attractive or at least marrying a rich guy, so…

Changes in expectations, politics, and societal hierarchy in the Chinese culture began around 1900, and developed rapidly continuing to around 1960. The last emperor of China, Pu Yi, took the thrown in 1908 at the young age of three. He was taken from the home of his family in Peking and brought to the Forbidden City, which is home to the emperor of China. Pu Yi is accompanied by his nurse and father, and is told by the Empress Dowager Cixi that he would be the next emperor of China because this…

You He Bu Ke? In English this Chinese phrase means is anything impossible? For those growing up in China not that long ago, they had to adopt the attitude that nothing they wanted to was impossible even when many parts of their own culture were working against them. In Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah, she tells the story of her life from the events leading up to her birth to much later on. The author touches on everything from world events like the…

As the revolution in Shanghai develops over a relatively short period of time, the several main participants are examined, and it becomes clear that their individual levels of dedication and reasoning for supporting the revolution do not coincide. While some members are be willing to sacrifice their lives in order to further the communist insurrection, others are simply engaging in whatever acts benefit them the most. Each character is met with a series of choices and obstacles that they must…

many children separating from their families to support chairman Mao. During the cultural revolution, a lot of family relationships break, like Ji-Li and her family, and Shan-Shan and his mother. One example of a child in the book who left their family to join the cultural revolution is Shan-Shan. In page 142, Shan-Shan’s mother tripped over a broom and fell, and even though his mother was injured, helping her would be opposing Mao, so he walked past like he didn’t see anything. JI-LI was…

Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which began in the late 1950’s, had three main goals within the reforms. These goals centred around agricultural, industrial and ideological reform. Mao aimed to dramatically increase agricultural output which he believed needed to be complimented by an increase in industrial output. Mao was also aiming to move from socialism into communism during this period. Similarly Khrushchev’s reforms of the 1950’s also centred around these same themes of agriculture, industrial…