Red Scarf Girl Summary
The Cultural Revolution that took place in the 1960’s and 70’s had a major impact on the citizens of China, and is represented throughout literature in a multitude of ways, as shown in the passages Red Scarf Girl and China’s Cultural Revolution. With these differentiating ideas used in both passages, people who learn about this topic can thoroughly understand these facts on deep emotional levels if there are ways to get a full picture of the historical events that took place. In other words, since there are different points of view, different attitudes towards the alteration, and different displays of how the authors describe these developments in history, readers can fully grasp the concept that is the Chinese Cultural Revolution. First
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In Red Scarf Girl and China’s Cultural Revolution, both speak of how the cultural revolution of China has affected the highly populated country in such an oppressive way, and how it beat down peasant farmers. The rural Chinese had lived under the feudal system through which peasants had worked to produce crops for the wealthy landowners, so this movement greatly affected them the most. On the contrary, the author of China’s Cultural Revolution stated these facts in such a monotone piece of literature, there is no way for readers to relate to the emotional calamities that were described in Red Scarf Girl. These different details about the development of this movement shows more layers than a Pillsbury biscuit. “The labor was hard, and the workers earned little income. On top of this, they also had to pay rent, taxes, and fines. From time to time, the peasants rebelled against the feudal lords. In some cases, the farmers began to work for their own benefit. Such people were called “middle peasants,” and perhaps there would have been more of them in time. Still, millions of agricultural workers lived in poverty, and their children could not hope for anything better,” (Vitale 1). These working class citizens were working to support families, fighting for a better life, but behind closed doors, they had to rid themselves of anything against the new rules being made daily. On top of everything they had to deal with economically, they also had to make sure they would not be arrested. Consequently, both passages convey the message of a moment in history that caused anguish, but portrayed contradicting statements about what was causing the citizens of China
In Red Scarf Girl and China’s Cultural Revolution, both speak of how the cultural revolution of China has affected the highly populated country in such an oppressive way, and how it beat down peasant farmers. The rural Chinese had lived under the feudal system through which peasants had worked to produce crops for the wealthy landowners, so this movement greatly affected them the most. On the contrary, the author of China’s Cultural Revolution stated these facts in such a monotone piece of literature, there is no way for readers to relate to the emotional calamities that were described in Red Scarf Girl. These different details about the development of this movement shows more layers than a Pillsbury biscuit. “The labor was hard, and the workers earned little income. On top of this, they also had to pay rent, taxes, and fines. From time to time, the peasants rebelled against the feudal lords. In some cases, the farmers began to work for their own benefit. Such people were called “middle peasants,” and perhaps there would have been more of them in time. Still, millions of agricultural workers lived in poverty, and their children could not hope for anything better,” (Vitale 1). These working class citizens were working to support families, fighting for a better life, but behind closed doors, they had to rid themselves of anything against the new rules being made daily. On top of everything they had to deal with economically, they also had to make sure they would not be arrested. Consequently, both passages convey the message of a moment in history that caused anguish, but portrayed contradicting statements about what was causing the citizens of China