Wild Swans : Three Daughters Of China By Jung Chang

The cultural revolution is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).

The Memoir Spider Eaters by Rae Yang is her personal account of her life during the Maoist revolution. In addition, she reminisces about her trials and tribulations during her active participation in the culture revolution and the great North Wilderness. Her family also had various misfortunes due to these changing ideological beliefs spread by the revolution. This memoir illustrates in great detail what Yang experienced under communist rule. Spider Eaters opened up a door to a young girl and her families struggle to be good Samaritans under communist rule and their final disillusionment of the revolution they whole heartedly believed in. Yang and her family struggled with the vast ideological changes during the Maoist Revolution, in turn,

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.

According to the Online Dictionary, the “Chinese Cultural Revolution” is defined as “a movement in China, beginning in the year 1966 and led by Mao Zedong, to restore the vitality of communism in China.” To begin, the Chinese Cultural Revolution performed a significant role in establishing the setting and conflicts in the novel of “Red Scarf Girl”. The setting of the story took place in the city of Shanghai, specifically throughout the course of two and a half years from the year 1966 to 1969. The protagonist and narrator of the story, Ji Li Jiang, was a 12-year-old Chinese girl who lived as a wealthy resident in the brownstone apartments of Shanghai. As the story progressed, Ji Li developed alterations in her relationships with her peers at school, the perception of her goals and responsibilities in life, and knowledge of her family history in relation to her class-status in the community. Therefore, throughout the course of the story, it was evident that significant changes and development of the relationships, perceptions, and knowledge of Ji Li Jiang occurred as a result of the events that she experienced.

When Jan Wong first arrived in China, she was filled with the complete belief that China’s totalitarianism way of government was the best way of governing, and that no other way would do. While natives smiled behind false expressions, she failed to realize the true extent of the miserable lives under the Maoist regime until she herself experienced the injustices faced by the Chinese citizens. In Red China Blues, author Jan Wong writes of her experiences during her life in China and after, and how her whole journey led to the realization of the harsh reality that Maoism really was. As Wong learned more and more about the truth behind the totalitarian government, her own experiences helped her to transform

Questions have been raised on whether Chinese parenting raises more flourishing children than Western parenting. Despite what people think, in Amy Chua's essay “The Roar of the Tiger Mom”, she portrays the differences between the beliefs of Chinese parenting and Western parenting. Chua introduces the views of a Chinese parent compared to the views of a Western parent. The methods used by Chinese mothers in raising their children are drastically different from Western mothers. Each defends their methods and believes the other group is doing their job poorly. In the end, both types of parents just want one thing-- successful children.

In Six Records of a Floating Life, Shen Fu writes of his wife, “Yün came to this world a woman, but she had the feelings and abilities of a man.” (Fu: 89) Shen Fu and Yün considered each other to be intellectual equals. However, their relationship was still constrained within the gender roles set by their society. They lived during the Qing dynasty, which was a prosperous time for China (“The Manchus”: 266) but also a time when, as Professor Scarlett states in the lecture Daily Life in Imperial China, “the outside world was for men and the inside world was for women.” Shen Fu and Yün’s relationship was pushing the bounds of their culture, but they still kept (mostly) within the lines of social acceptability.

In the novel A Daughter of Han by Ida Pruitt, the readers are taken through a journey of one woman through her life’s highs and lows. Through the eyes of Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai, readers can truly understand the life of a working woman during this time period. Although life may not have been easy at times, Ning Lao shows the determination and passion she had for her family and for their lives to be better. The life of a working woman is never an easy life but adding in the social rules and opium addiction that effected each part of Ning Lao’s life made it much more difficult.

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is a family memoir written by Chinese author Jung Chang spanning a century in Imperial China, through and past the Cultural Revolution. The book recounts the lives of three women in China via biographies, these women being Chang’s grandmother, mother, and lastly her own autobiography. Chang begins the book by recounting the biography of her grandmother, Yu-fang. Yu-fang’s family was poor, and so her father planned to have her be taken as a concubine by General Xue Zhi-heng, a high ranking warlord, in order to gain status which was significantly important for their quality of life. At the age of fifteen she had a wedding ceremony to the General, and they spent several days in each other’s company before he left for six years.

Blood Red Sunset is a record of Ma Bo 's life and which stunned people all through China when it was distributed and was even prohibited by the Communist Government for a set time. This story paints a picture for what the Chinese Cultural Revolution truly was. Chinese living today can bear witness to if this was the life that they had at this time to persevere amid the Cultural Revolution comparable if not indistinguishable experiences as told in Ma Bo 's story. The drudges of being a youthful Red Guard in inward China were experienced by many if not millions. The revulsions and atrocities were across the board all through the nation, not simply in Inner Mongolia. The encounters outlined in Blood Red Sunset have to deal with Ma Bo 's whole

She transitions well between the chapters by providing conclusions for each chapter, but within the chapters he states multiple goals throughout instead of clearly stating his goals at the beginning of the chapters. This gives a feeling of “oh and I am just going to add this before I forget” to the text that makes it less professional. Yue also completes her text with a multi-faceted conclusion that extends upon earlier discussions of cosmopolitanism, “unruly practices,” and revolts that would have been much better placed in the earlier chapters that discussed these very topics than placed at the end of the text. Not only does the additional information seem ill-suitably placed, but at times gets repetitive. Her final section of the conclusion, “At the Overlapping Moment of History,” would have made the most sense to conclude the text as a whole because it brings the discussion of Shanghai into modern-day terminology and

This could show the author biases about the idea of liberation and freedom for women in China is different from other countries. Even though he doesn't talk about women, he does give present clear evidence that this book would be about the modern maleness of being a stronger

I found this reading quite interesting, last semester I took a history class and we went into Chinese American history. We didn’t go too in-depth in the class and this reading opened up more experience and what it was like to be a Chinese American in the 19th century. One thing I learned from this reading in the “Ah Quin Diary” was how poorly the Chinese were treated by white people. In one part of the diary Ah Quin mentions how he fell into a hole and his watch got wet and when he went to the boss, the boss laughed at him. Not only that but in another section of the diary he talks about the disturbing conditions of living, Ah Quin briefly mentions how he was unable to sleep because bug would bite and crawl all over him at night. Another thing

The author of The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck, ingeniously describes the traditions of a Chinese woman in the early nineteenth century through the character O-lan. It is traditional in the Chinese culture to have the parents arrange the marriages for status purposes. During the marriage, the man oversees all the decision making, while the woman must heed to whatever the husband instructs her to do. O-lan possess these characteristics, which constructs the ideal (perfect) Chinese woman. Instances that portray this is when O-lan marries Wang Lung and enters a farming life and bears two sons, Wang Lung moves the family South, and takes a concubine later in his life, while O-lan follows obediently. Pearl S. Buck illustrates O-lan as the traditional