What Is The Theme Of The Red Scarf Girl

Though the books assigned to read in junior high are meant to get students informed about both literature and social issues, unfortunately reading these books is often pushed aside to focus on more interesting hobbies, and students are left to pray that sparknotes has a summary. In ninth grade, however, a new year’s resolution committed me to reading The Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang. The book is a memoir about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the book quickly became one of my favorites. After finishing the book for the first time, I decided to research the politics behind the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and that led into researching the political history of more countries. I have been deeply interested in politics since then, and along with politics, I have been deeply interested in the law. The ability that people have to use the law to make a difference is both inspiring and terrifying, exciting in a way that you can protect people, and terrifying in a way that, like Chairman Mao discovered, it can be used to control an entire population. My interest in the law and in serving others began with this

Have you ever had one moment in your life that you are happy and joyous, but the next you are hopeless and glum? Well Ji-li from the memoir The Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang has. Her life went from her being a child who was respected, and looked up to by other students to being disrespected by people that she did not even know. Once the Cultural revolution started Ji-li's life began going down hill. Just one little detail in Ji-lis' class status changed her life and it was not in a good way.

In The Red Scarf Girl, the author Ji-Li, Ji-Li talks about her life growing up in China during the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As a young smart and talented girl, Ji-Li gets invited to audition for the Liberation Army Dance group, but unfortunately, Ji-Li is not able to audition because her family was very wealthy. Chairman Mao proposes to get rid of the Four Olds which triggers the Cultural Revolution. Ji-Li’s life turns completely upside down; she no longer can go to her school, people make fun of her because her grandpa was a landowner, and her dad gets arrested. Mao believed in communism and Ji-Li’s family did not fall under an ideal communist family. Ji-Li supports the ideas of the Cultural Revolution, but when the government requests for her to testify against her

Overall, the Culture Revolution was in many ways a war on the Chinese people beliefs, sexuality, customs, gender, and view. Yang perfectly illustrates the ideological turmoil that people suffered from during this period. The revolution lead to Yang’s family’s disfranchisement, her blurred understanding of sexuality and gender roles, as well as, disillusionment of the communist party as a whole. Yang escaped the clutches of communism and the Great North Wilderness with the acceptance of her application to attend the University of

As the novel draws to an end, Ji-li has am important choice to make; She can support her family or support Mao and the revolution. Ji-li face great pressure from the red guards and also from the part of herself that wants to cure her black class status. However she chooses her family because “(it is) too precious to forget and too rare to replace”(Pg 263). However, this choice has consequences for her and her family. She was prevented from becoming an actress because of her class status, and her mother was forced to write self-critism reports because she would not break with her husband. In brief, Ji-li has a vital choice to make, and chose her family, but this choice had consequences.

Consider the passage in which Ji-li witnesses her cousin Shan-Shan as he walks right past his mother, who has fallen on the street (page 142)? Does Ji-li shun her own parents in any way because of their class status? How does she overcome her desire to break with her family? Are there any circumstances which justify putting the goal of your country before that of your family?

9. What is a da-zi-bao? What conflict did Ji-li confront when she was asked to write a da-zi-bao? What did she do?

Over a period of year’s education has grown to be very important to many cultures all over the world. At one time in many cultures children were only taught what was necessary to get along and sometimes only children of the wealthy would be taught. China’s government

The name of Xin-hua translates to New China and it was her powerful belief for a new China that made her determination so strong. Throughout Forbidden City her determination seemed to grow. It required a lot of guts and determination for the powerless ordinary people to take on the all-powerful government. Determination, though not her only characteristic, was certainly the strongest one, but through her determination she showed Alex a different world. To die for your country is not as heart rending than to be executed by an army who used to die for their country instead of killing their people. Xin-hua, though fictional, was one among thousands of people who died for their beliefs and still had no effect on China's Communist Party.

Immediately after the war ended in 1949, with victory for the Communist Party, new and revolutionary ideas were everywhere. Along with the spread of these new ideas was the spread of better education for women. The new ideals challenged the old ways that women should not be educated as much as men, or even at all. In the Qing dynasty, getting an education and being literate were seen as injuring the chastity and purity of women. If they went to school and got an education, women would find it extremely hard for them to get married, as Chinese society at that time dictated that women who were learned were seen as promiscuous or frivolous women. This all changed after the Communist Party took over the government, promising change and equal rights. Studies found that in the 1950s, the literacy rate of women increased. This change was mainly due to the increasingly available educational opportunities for younger girls at the primary school level, and since then, women have enjoyed the same educational opportunities as men did. This development in women’s education was made possible by the Chinese Civil War and the Communist government take

Early in childhood Jing Mei dreamed of finding her prodigy and being a famous Chinese American, mostly because of the views and actions her mother placed on her. Her mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. (pg 405) Her mother was always pushing new tests and talents on Jing Mei. She even went as far as having her daughter Jing Mei models her physical appearance and actions after a child-star Shirley Temple. Her other was always testing her with many different things trying to discover Jing Mei’s talent. Later Jing Mei started to feel like her mother was just trying to make her into someone she was not and started to just fail and not try to do anything right hoping her mother would give up. When her mother died she had realized what her mother had been trying to do. Her mother had only wanted her to do her best. She had then to realize what her mother had

Amy Chua has two daughters, to which she raised in a traditional Chinese way, strict. Very strict. Her daughters weren’t allowed sleepovers, television, arts and crafts, no ability to express their minds creatively. With the exception being piano. Second best wasn’t allowed, if you weren’t first, then you were last. Not being the best would result in punishment of correcting your failures hours on end. In the hope that, these painstaking hours would result in regaining success. School was at utmost importance, and being years ahead of other classmates was expected. If expectations weren’t met,

Although there are some similarities between the messages given to youth during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and kids today, there are many more differences. One example of this is kids during the Chinese Cultural Revolution was encouraged to disrespect your teachers and elders while kids today are encouraged to respect their teachers and elders. The evidence of this is kids during the Chinese Cultural Revolution was supposed to write da-zi-bao to criticize their educational system. They wrote one criticizing Ji-Li’s aunt and forced her to read it to everyone. It said bad things about her such as ‘The more you try to improve your outward appearance, the filthier your heart is. Your black bourgeois bones are clearly visible to our proletarian

Although the Cultural Revolution had a huge impact on all of the citizens of China, it seemed to affect the youth the most. The youth of China began to get involved after a speech by Lin Biao by 1965. It urged the students in schools and colleges to return to the basic principles of the CR. The Chinese youths quickly formed a group called the Red Guards early in the CR, which encouraged all the Chinese students to disapprove of whoever didn’t support Mao and his beliefs or anyone associated with Mao’s rival, Liu Shaoqi (Trueman). Schools and colleges were closed, and the students neglected their studies. While the Red Guards were very passionate about what they did, their enthusiasm nearly pushed China into social disorder. The economy was affected very badly, and almost driven to a near collapse (Busetto, Galduroz, and Satou). Food shortage was one of the main problems the economy caused. Also In some areas, the activities of the Red Guards got out of hand. They

Over the course of Mao’s leadership from 1949 until his death in 1976 we can see the significance of his leadership and what made him a good and bad leader. Mao had made some very good decisions to help certain groups but also made some very bad decisions that paid the price, in some cases killing millions. Due to the social and economic changes that then followed by a significant increase in the population and weak leadership that led to rebellions from 1911 that saw the end of 3500years of rule by the Chinese imperial dynasties. The social and economic chaos then led to the formation of two political parties. The CCP, led by Mao Zedong and the GMD led by Chiang Kai Shek. Mao and his party defeated the GMD in 1949 bringing Mao into power. Mao’s main goal was to turn China into a pure communist country. Over the course of Mao’s leadership he did this by making significant social, economic and political changes to the Chinese way of life. However due to his poor leadership and the faults that he made it caused people to oppose him and get in the way of his goal. That is why in 1966 Mao decided to assert his beliefs through a series of decisions, which came to be known as the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was a hard time for many people throughout China as Mao enforced many things upon them to achieve his aim of removing capitalism. Mao used the youth of China to be that