Growth, an innate human element, is single handedly responsible for the advancement of society into the future. It brings about the advancement of one’s body, emotionally and intellectually. The changes brought by growth are incessant, and can go down two different directions; one of benefit, and one of malice. Two young men in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Die Sijie, experience beneficial growth. The duo, two Chinese city boys, are sent to a rural mountain side in China to experience re-education. This new program instated under the communist party of China, led by Mao Zedong, aims to restructure the knowledge and understandings of modern culture of people in China. However, the two young men are remolded via the different workings …show more content…
They see him: “A sedan chair in which a middle-aged man was enthroned” (25). This excerpt embellishes upon his wealth, to the point that he was “enthroned” as if he were a royal. The man is also only middle aged, which means he must have had many lucrative experiences early on in his life. This indirectly proves that even a middle-aged man, a tailor, someone who would have never been able to be rich in the city, can become rich in his own right. This enlightenment befalls the narrator and Luo, as they understand that all types of skills and knowledge are beneficial to diverse types of cultures. In this case, the tailor is extremely important to the daily operations of the villages. He is important to the point that he would even receive an “escort party” (22) from every village whenever they needed his services. The importance the tailor holds almost translates to a form of reverence –they treat him like a “king” (22). Their ultimate understanding that everyone has a use in all parts of society provides them with an insight on the greater applications of knowledge, and open their minds to accept other cultures. Their application of this understanding is demonstrated when the narrator and Luo steal Four Eye’s suite case filled with western books. They instantly become engrossed in them: “we were seduced overwhelmed, spellbound by the mystery of the outside world, especially the world of women, love and sex as revealed to us by these Western writer’s day after day, page after page, book after book” (109). Their exposure once more to a vastly different culture immerses them in intellectual gain, as they absorb the elements of western culture. They begin to understand the libertarian culture of the west, where there is much more freedom in society. Commonly suppressed themes in their communist culture are revealed to be ordinary in
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
The novel 'Mao's Last Dancer', is a gripping story about the author, Li Cunxin and his story to success as a professional ballet dancer in communist China. The story shows how hard work, determination and hardships lead to the achievement of goals. Throughout the book, Li suffers from a number of physically and mentally challenging struggles that test him and push him to become stronger and more determined. Both mental and physical struggles are equally as difficult to overcome and both play a big part in different stages of Li's life.
Teenager, an age of rebellions is offered the perfect opportunity: to falsely testify against their parents, and became the educable children of Chairman Mao. But for many, the choice is not easy. Specially for the kid from "black" family, similar to main character Jiang; they have to choose between siding with their family, consider a disgrace, going against Chairman Mao's idea, or to be an honorable red guard,and side with the communist party."' Why don't you stay home with him? In case...' 'I've thought about that.' She looked away from my face to the litter on the table. 'But we can't allow personal matters to interfere with revolutionary duties. Especially for an important political assignment like the exhibition.'"(205). That's the idea chairman Mao encouraged, and it clearly separate family from politics. From this other girl point of view, she valued her policies and belief overtook her love for her brother. The action of this girl makes a strong contract to Ji-Li, bother third action define who they are.
In this novel, the society is centered around dichotomies; “youth and dotage” (Balzac 67), “the young man who has possessions and the young man that has nothing” and “the young man who thinks and the young man who spends” (87). Any person who falls outside of either box is called a “[child] who learn[s]… too late” or can “never appear in polite society” (87), essentially meaning they are undesirable in a formal society because they cannot follow expectations. The titular character, Paquita, is an “oriental” foreigner, from Havana, domesticated in Paris when she was sold to a wealthy woman who desired her. She fits into no culture entirely, as she is “part Asian houri on her mother’s side, part European through education, and part tropical by birth” (122). She is bisexual, choosing neither men nor women over the other. She is controlling, dressing Henri in women’s clothing (119), but controlled as she is reduced to a possession. However, there are ways in which a person can still be desired even if they are not easily pigeonholed. With her golden eyes and sensuality, Paquita fulfills both of the main pursuits of this society, “gold and pleasure” (68). Consequently, unlike the Marquis and his irrelevance in society, Paquita is highly sought after, thus making her a valuable commodity. Her desirability is not because of who she is as a human, but instead what
These characters, however different they lie on the morality scale, all share the sinful trait of greed. They all ask, and take too much, ruining what the good that they had in their lives. Understanding their mistakes offers its useful readers a lesson, not to demand too much of the things we are offered. The characters struggle with their desires, each of them succombing to their passions.
It is impossible to understand the innermost and ever complex thoughts, feelings, hopes, and reflections of others. To understand is to grasp the strife and pleasure of each moment’s depth through a set lens. Confined by my own lens, I have been and will always be the main character of my own book. Though I can never know another human’s cognitive glances, I can at least be mindful of the infinite complexity and reasoning of each human. Even the most empathetic cannot understand exactly how Claude Monet felt for Camille, how Beethoven felt for “Elise”, or how
All through time, successive generations have rebelled against the values and traditions of their elders. In all countries, including China, new generations have sought to find a different path than that of their past leaders. Traditional values become outdated and are replaced with what the younger society deems as significant. Family concentrates on this very subject. In the novel, three brothers struggle against the outdated Confucian values of their elders. Alike in their dislike of the traditional Confucian system of their grandfather, yet very different in their interactions with him and others, begin to reach beyond the ancient values of Confucianism and strive for a breath of freedom. Their struggles against the old values lead to pain, suffering and eventually achievement for the three of them, however at a harsh price for two brothers.
standing in riding clothes with his legs apart on his front porch. He likes his power, and like the emperor of eastern kingdoms, he expects. the obedience of his subjects. It is not only through character status that wealth is symbolised but also through the colour “gold”. Towards the end of page 9 the reader is given a sense of time and a positive idea of how the modern world is progressing, through the metaphor of “growing trees” and the “burst of leaves” creating new.
Speaking of the Cultural Revolution, to the generation who has experienced it, it is a nightmare. 10-year Cultural Revolution has gradually been a blur in Chinese people’s mind, especially to the younger generation such as my generation. However, the consequences of Cultural Revolution are profoundly devastating to the Chinese society; as Chinese people said, history is like a mirror in which can reflect many problems that are occurring contemporarily. The same mistake in which we have made can still be made in the future if we do not learn from our past. Unquestionably, the Culture Revolution was, as many people believed, the “darkest 10 years” in the moder...
In Dai Sijie’s novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, about the impact of China’s Counter Revolution, the Little Seamstress, one of the main characters, processes an idea that will forever change her. We see The Little Seamstress, an uneducated person living in a distant corner of China, developing into someone new, almost being able to touch the image she creates in her mind; as someone transformed with new ideas not looking back into the simple mountain girl she once was. The story is set in a far western corner of China to which two young educated men –Lou and the “unnamed” narrator– are banished and where they fall in love with the Little Seamstress, the beautiful but illiterate daughter of the local tailor. With the author’s use of imagery, diction, syntax, and
"Spring Silkworms" is about the trials and tribulations of an old farmer named Lao Tong Bao and his family during the silkworm raising season. The story raises the issue of the changes occurring to the Chinese agricultural traditions due to modern influences. It is a tale that "represents Mao Dun's historical dialectic that highlights the confrontation of modern machinery with provincial handicraftsmanship; of western know-how with native values; and of capitalist money with rural struggle for cultural and socioeconomic autonomy." (Wang xviii) In my paper I will highlight several confrontations between modernity and tradition. I will also analyze how modernity and tradition were portrayed in the story.
Zhong, Xueping, Zheng Wang, and Bai Di. Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing up in the Mao Era. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
The Chinese people experienced rapid changes, in government and their own culture in the 20th century. In the book, Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, she depicts the experiences of not only oppression and suffering, but the development of the communist revolution, under Mao. Also, to show how the Chinese people, women in particular, fought against impossible odds by interweaving historical and personal stories from the twentieth century China.
The setting for this novel was a constantly shifting one. Taking place during what seems to be the Late Industrial Revolution and the high of the British Empire, the era is portrayed amongst influential Englishmen, the value of the pound, the presence of steamers, railroads, ferries, and a European globe.
Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of Children to show the effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, and how they affected the meaning people found in education. In The King of Children, it is shown that the Cultural Revolution destroyed the traditional incentives for pursuing an education, and instead people found moral and ethical meaning in pursuing an education.