The hunger for power lies within every one of us, yet most can have the strength to resist it. However, occasionally the temptation is so strong that it corrupts the brain. All the person can think about is achieving that power, no matter the cost. Ji-Li Jiang’s memoir, Red Scarf Girl, tells the personal narrative of a young girl growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China. Despite being a black whelp, the child of a family belonging to any of the “Five Black Categories”, Ji-Li Jiang is able to overcome the countless tribulations brought upon her and her family. Although Ji-Li’s naivety enhances her involvement in the Cultural Revolution, her constant loyalty towards her family perseveres; nevertheless, without her earlier devotion …show more content…
[He tells her she was] born in New China. [She]can choose [her] own destiny; [she] can make a clean break from [her] parents and have a bright future, or [she] can follow [her] parents, and then… [she] will not come to a good end” (190). Her parents’ futures are already destroyed. However, Ji-Li grew up during the Cultural Revolution; thus, she has the opportunity for a bright future as an educable student apart from her parents. In order to succeed, Ji-Li is required to reject the people she loves the most, a task she is not willing to undertake. Despite numerous tribulations, Ji-Li is determined to keep her family together. However, when a news article is released, exposing her grandfather as a wealthy landlord, she feels that her parents have deceived her. Thinking her efforts to gain back the respect of her peers had gone to waste, she shouts, “I hate landlords. I hate this landlord family” (211). At the time, landlords were despised throughout the community. In addition to living a bourgeois, capitalist lifestyle, they were considered, according to the Communist Party, the Revolution’s …show more content…
Ji-Li Jiang was not the only citizen deceived by the Communist Party and Chairman Mao. Once most Nationalists, dissidents of Communism, immigrated to Taiwan in 1949, the only people remaining in China were Communist; thus, the common people supported Chairman Mao. He took advantage of the people’s trust and manipulated the entire country. In the hope of spreading enthusiasm about Communism, Chairman Mao used propaganda wisely. New and modern technologies were conducive to the development of Chairman Mao’s personality cult, a group of supporters that follow him for his personality rather than his ideas. Through secular religion, the abolishing of all faiths, Chairman Mao replaced God, Allah, or any other deities with himself. Seeing that religion was the central force in everyone’s life, Chairman Mao was worshiped throughout the nation. The Chinese citizens’ devotion towards Chairman Mao was so great that despite being prosecuted and humiliated themselves, "[they] believed that the Cultural Revolution was necessary to prevent revisionism and capitalism from taking over China… [For instance, when questioned whether or not she hated Chairman Mao, An Yi’s mother replied] ‘if the country was better for the movement
Red Queen is written with such passion, that it envelops the reader in the story, hung on each and every word. A beautiful tale of hardship, romance, and betrayal. Aveyard does an amazing job of making the reader feel as if they are right beside Mare Barrow on her journey, of becoming the Red Queen.
In Ji-Li Jiang’s Red Scarf Girl, the story is set in Shanghai, China. In 1966, Ji-Li Jiang is a happy little girl of twelve years. She looks forward to a future working for Chairman Mao's New China and his Communist Party. However, her happy life is suddenly interrupted by the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, a movement led by Chairman Mao, to remove all parts of capitalism in Chinese society. Her family becomes the target of government persecution, since her parents and grandparents are labeled as ''Black'', which means that they are opposed to the (Red) Communist Party. Ji-Li and her family become outcasts of society as they live in fear of arrest. Ji-Li realizes that the Communist Party and Chairman Mao prevented China from improving
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.
...ate her experiences and values into the novel while writing it, exemplifying the characteristics of curiosity, independence and rebelliousness that she feels are important in the conformist society of China. Only through curiosity can people learn of the political oppression so craftily utilized by the government. The Chinese must show independence to stand out from the average citizen “being brainwashed” (Wang, Personal Interview) by nationalistic pride. These individuals must be rebellious, in order to join the revolution desperately needed to break through the masquerade the Chinese dictatorship hides behind; a revolution to fight for freedom and democracy. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson`s ideals, being yourself means not conforming to a world filled with dictators, oppression and lies. These are the people who have achieved the greatest accomplishment.
To achieve this goal, he crafts a stylized capitalistic society that inflicts grave injustices upon his protagonists. The avarice inherent to this society governs everyday life within Street Angel. Xiao Hong, for example, lives with adoptive parents so corrupted by greed that they prostitute their older daughter, Xiao Yun. In a transaction that reflects the inhumanity of higher-level capitalism, these parents sell Xiao Hong to a local gangster. By juxtaposing the implications of this sale with Xiao Hong’s exaggerated innocence, Yuan appeals to his audience’s emotions, stoking anger toward social values that could enable such barbaric exploitation of the poor. Yuan employs a similar juxtaposition later in Street Angel, when Wang visits a lawyer’s office in a skyscraper – an environment so divorced from his day-to-day realities that he remarks, “This is truly heaven.” Wang soon learns otherwise, when the lawyer rebuffs his naïve plea for assistance by coldly reciting his exorbitant fees. The lawyer’s emotionless greed – a callousness that represents capitalism at its worst – contrasts strikingly with Wang’s naïve purity, a quality betrayed by his awestruck expression while inside the skyscraper. Again, this juxtaposition encourages the film’s audience to sympathize with a proletarian victim and condemn the social values that enable his
In a futuristic novel such as The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, there can be several examples of a dystopia evolving.
China’s Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution (GPCR) is a well-documented period in world history, but the most profound records are found vivified in the literature and films later into the 20th century, respectively. One of the most profound novels is “To Live”, authored by Yu Hua, which as a fictional narrative offers both a unique and realistic sense of the time period at the individual level. However, the provocative film adaptation directed by Zhang Yimou in 1994 was formidable enough that it was banned in Mainland China. Zhang paints a more realistic picture of how the GPCR influenced Chinese society but adds zest to Hua’s ambiguity but acceptable imperfection. Naturally, the film has many different characteristics yet still manages to overcome the challenges that implicate film adaptations.
...ear and listen. That’s why most of the Chinese youth were inspired to join the army due to the books that were sold and the song that was written just for the Red Guards army. The book’s name is “Little Red Book.” The song’s name is “Red Guard Song.” For the members, the “Red Guard Song” reminds them of their purpose of why they joined the Red Guards. To add on, two young women had wrote their own memoirs to explain what their life was when the Cultural Revolution was happening and how their life was changed when they joined the Red Guards and started to rebel against their parents and their own teachers. As they grew older, they soon realized that everything that they’ve been doing the whole entire time was wrong and regret joining the Red Guards. They realize that all these time, they were killing innocent people that clearly was doing nothing to harm the country.
In analyzing these two stories, it is first notable to mention how differing their experiences truly are. Sammy is a late adolescent store clerk who, in his first job, is discontent with the normal workings of society and the bureaucratic nature of the store at which he works. He feels oppressed by the very fabric and nature of aging, out-of date rules, and, at the end of this story, climaxes with exposing his true feelings and quits his jobs in a display of nonconformity and rebellion. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, is a younger Asian American whose life and every waking moment is guided by the pressures of her mother, whose idealistic word-view aids in trying to mold her into something decent by both the double standards Asian society and their newly acquired American culture. In contrasting these two perspectives, we see that while ...
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
At first, Ji-li thought she was the luckiest girl in the world. She came from a very wealthy, loving, respected, and dependable family. In growing up in such was so was she too, “I was happy because I was able to excel and always expected to succeed. I was trusting, too. I never doubted what I was told…”(Jiang 1). The way Ji-li felt towards her family, proving that is the kind of family is everything Ji-li wanted. It is important for her, so then she can feel comfortable, then the family dynamics changed. Ji-li’s relationship has changed due to the Cultural Revolution, because when the change started to happen, she was okay. Ji-li then hated her family’s guts and background; near the end of the book. Ji-li feeling’s toward her family was unbreakable or even strengthened more than ever, and never went away. “… I would never do anything to hurt my family, and I would do everything I could do to take care of them. My family was too precious to forget, and too rare to replace.” ( Jiang 262-263). The importance that she will never abounded her family even in the most difficult times in her life. The reason the change occurred was Ji-li knew she could change her name, but she will always be a Jiang. She could also never leave the best thing in her life. Ji-li had other problems in her life as well, besides her family, there were her friends. Well
Dai Sijie’s novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress gives an elaborate analysis of the lives of children during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China. He paints the picture of the life of two young teenage boys, Ma and Luo, who are torn from their lives in the city and forced to live in the countryside to be re-educated with the typical proletariat. (Sijie). Sijie’s overall purpose in the novel is to convey to the reader how re-education in China was a cruel and unusual way to make the society equal as the proletariat and bourgeoisie are so polarized that they don't understand the ways of the other society. Sijie also shows his approval for Western culture to bring these two polarized societies together. He does this in introducing
Dressed in the drab military uniform that symbolized the revolutionary government of Communist China, Mao Zedong's body still looked powerful, like an giant rock in a gushing river. An enormous red flag draped his coffin, like a red sail unfurled on a Chinese junk, illustrating the dualism of traditional China and the present Communist China that typified Mao. 1 A river of people flowed past while he lay in state during the second week of September 1976. Workers, peasants, soldiers and students, united in grief; brought together by Mao, the helmsman of modern China. 2 He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history.
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Lindo Jong provides the reader with a summary of her difficulty in passing along the Chinese culture to her daughter: “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame . . . You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. . . . but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character . . . How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best”(Tan 289).