Red Scarf Girl And Jiang Ji-Li's Analysis

The Cultural Revolution was a time of much confusion in china. The memoir Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang illustrates the chaos of that time. Ji-li’s experiences during this time period led to her point of view changing. Ji-li starts the Cultural Revolution full of progressive thoughts, but this quickly turns to confusion, and leads to an important choice, something that impacts the rest of her life.

What would happen if defying the government could result in death? In the memoir Red Scarf Girl, Ji-li describes how everybody had dutifully followed Chairman Mao and took action in helping the Communist Party. On the other hand, others flouted the Party. During the events of the Cultural Revolution, Ji-li Jiang has self-conflicts about her true beliefs. Ji-li once believed in the kindness of the Communist Party and had confidence that the Cultural Revolution would benefit the fate of China. However, Ji-li’s beliefs soon change from following the footsteps of Chairman Mao to going against the Cultural Revolution for the sake of others.

The family relationships changed drastically throughout the novel through the influence of the Cultural Revolution and the Communist party. The party would say that a certain family or person is doing wrong or committing crime and put them in the black category, even if they were not guilty. Their relatives would assume that the accused are criminals and ignore or disgrace them so that they would not be considered part of the black family anymore. Shan-Shan shuns his mother when she became part of the black community. When she falls, he doesn’t even help her as she struggles to get up, he just walks past as if she wasn’t even there because of the shame she has brought. Though some are like that, Ji-li never shunned her parents because she loved them, she didn’t feel as if it was fair to them and she stuck by them no matter what. Though she had thoughts and pressure she always fought off the shame and came out to take care of and love her parents, even though they were in the worst position possible in communist China. Ji-li did

The character of Jin Wang in American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yan changes throughout the story according to the different conflicts he encounters. Jin Wang’s troubles first start when transferring to a new school in a new town, where he is the only ethnic minority in his class. Being outcasted by his classmates he begins his journey in dealing with his own differences. Through internal and external conflict, Jin Wang realizes his true self.

Growing up, Wang was also very independent from the people around her. During a personal email interview with Wang, she stated, “Yes, I think independent thinking is very important/courageous in a conformist society.” One important step Wang took in her life was to establish her own career path, instead of a traditional Chinese job, much like Lili. She wanted to pursue being an author, as well as study at an American University. Wang said of her parents, “They wished I had a ‘real’ job.” (“Beijing’s Badgirl” 2) While Wang lived in Beijing, she felt the need to independently support the movement in Tiananmen Square. She claimed “I went to Tiananmen for the freedom of press the freedom of everything” in an email interview. Ironically, it is Tiananmen itself that inspired her most independent work yet. Wang embarked on a journey to write a book on it, Lili, in English and all by herself. Incredibly, she accomplished this with little English experience beforehand, however, she was steadfast, saying “Sometimes I spent three days or a week just to search for a proper word […]” (“Conversation” 1) and finished ten years later. It was independent acts like these that were stirred into action by yet another value shared between Wang and her novel’s main character.

Ji-Li is born on the Chinese New Year of 1954 or February 2, 1954. Her name means lucky and beautiful. She is very smart and used to be the "da-dui-zhang" (the Chinese equivalent of the head of the student council, the most powerful student in the elementry school). Despite her academic achievements, she is held back by her poor class status. Ji-Li very much wants to become a Red Successor. A Red Successor is a student who will become a Red Guard in the future. (Red Guards were high school or college students that enforced laws and helped destroy the Four Olds). Because her grandfather was a landlord and her father is said to be a rightist (someone who disagrees with, or opposes the Communist Party), people started to humiliate Ji-Li at school, and they will not let her become what she wants to be- a Red Successor and a Liberation Army Dancer. She loves her family so much that

How quickly can your life turn around? Ji-li's life changed greatly in the memoir Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang. In the beginning, Ji-li was always thinking positively. As the story continued, she began to feel confused and upset. She found herself questioning everyone and everything she loved.

Lisa See is an American writer and novelist born in 1955 in Paris, and grew up in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles. Her great-grandfather left his village in China to immigrate in Los Angeles at the beginning of the last century. Although she is only 1/8 Chinese, she spent he childhood in the Chinatown of Los Angeles, and her familial background has given her roots in Chinese culture and has had a great impact on her life and work.

During the Cultural Revolution, China was under the rule of Communist Party leader Mao Zendong, who a majority of China, especially its youth, began to think of more closely to a God than a ruler. Although, because much of China has grown great affection over Mao, they are oblivious to what he is actually doing, and what is happening to the rest of China and the people around them. In both Red Scarf Girl and Someone Named Eva by Joan Wolf, the book is about a ruler who because so many people have begun to greatly admire and look up too, as both a ruler and role model, has forced people to become unconscious to what is actually happening to the world and people around them. In both books because of the people’s great admiration towards their leaders, they have also begun to not only adapt their leader’s thoughts, ideas, and perspectives, but have put them into action. In Red Scarf Girl, Ji-Li Jiang says “But Grandma, we have to get rid of those old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits.

The Cultural Revolution in China was supposed to reform the country for the better, to make everything new and equal between the people. Unfortunately, in order to do this, many people—who had never done anything against their country—suffered ridicule and false accusations based off their ancestry and their social class status. Jiang Ji-li tells of her own experiences during the Cultural Revolution in her memoir, Red Scarf Girl. She was only twelve or thirteen years old when the revolution first started, and over the course a few years, everything went drastically downhill as the country reformed itself. The changes and revisions that Ji-li is experiencing are meant to be positive, but the effects that they have on her family and her life—in

Throughout the memoir “Mao’s Last Dancer” written by Li Cunxin a variety of language techniques are used to explore different attitudes to culture in 20th century China. From the village commune of his early childhood, to the Beijing Ballet Academy, and America, Li Cunxin’s memoir explores how our cultural values change due to being exposed to different ways of life, This occurred when Li Cunxin first travelled to America and saw their freedom. First Statement: In the commune where Li Cunxin lived, one cultural value that was vital was upholding the family name. “Although we have no money, no food, and can’t buy clothes, and although we live in a poor house, one thing we do have is PRIDE.

Initially, the main character, Jing-mei Woo, lived in San Francisco. In contrast, her half-sisters lived in China. This spatial difference fostered Jing-mei’s lack of knowledge of what communist China would be like. This presents a distinct challenge in the story as there could have been over half a billion people in China

Ji-Li’s feelings of the Cultural Revolution changed from the beginning to the end of the novel. During the narrative, she thinks all these sacrifices are to be made because she doesn’t know any better. Soon the horrible things happening to her family then sway her opinion in a way towards the end. Instead of criticizing

What comes out of this massive and detailed dossier is a tale of horror in which Mao emerges as one of the greatest mass murderers in history, responsible for the deaths of at least 45 million people between 1958 and 1962. It is not merely the extent of the catastrophe that dwarfs earlier estimates, but also the manner in which many people died: between two and three million victims were tortured to death or summarily killed, often for the slightest infraction.

Li’s life in Communist China was difficult for him and his family of 9. Li’s family were living in poverty in a town called Qingdao. Li’s family made little money and poor living space with a large family. Li’s family all worked on the farm earning little money for important things in life. Li’s education taught him Chinese culture and language.