Preview

Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Summary

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1015 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Summary
Freedom of thoughts “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” by Dai Sijie, and “At the Center of the Storm” by Rae Yang describe one of the difficult time in Chinese population, during the China’s Cultural Revolution time. The Cultural Revolution had a great impact on the people especially young student’s education, and their freedom of thoughts. These characters attitude towards the Cultural Revolution was based on how the Cultural Revolution affected their freedom. For Yang the Cultural Revolution gave her more freedom and empowerment, while for the boys the Cultural Revolution made them scary and hopeless, because it took their freedom. In the beginning of the novel, Luo and the narrator were taken from their homes in order to be sent to the re-education because everyone that was considered as an "intellectual" (anyone who attended high school) must go through the re-education process. They lived in the Phoenix of the Sky and they had to carry basket full of humans and animals excrements (Sijie 14). In contrast, Yang participated in Red Guard, because she was inspired by Mao’s words to change their lives. She says, …show more content…
They still feel scared and hopeless, because they were separated from their parents. Rae Yang at the end of the story was confused. After so many changes that she went through, she didn’t know what to do. For example, when Mao forbade to use nannies, her family had nanny whose name was Aunty, even she loved her, she didn’t know how to help her .Yang was afraid to help her, because she was a member in Red Guards (Yang 385). Another example, is that Red Guard cut every woman’s long hair on the street, because it was bourgeois’ and rich people’s foundations. She didn’t have any choice and cut her long braid, “to save face and avoid trouble” (383).After so many changes in her life she understood that she was like a puppet controlled by the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    As the band the Rascal Flatts once sang, “Life is a highway.” This suggests that life is a long, winding journey that is fairly smooth. However, in life, one faces critical turning points and events which act as pivotal moments that shape the future. This idea of a pivotal moment is reflected in the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, which follows the journey of three youths during the repressive chinese cultural revolution. In particular, the main love interest and major character, the Little Chinese Seamstress, faces a pivotal moment in the very last chapter of the book when she decides to run away to the city in order to live a more modern lifestyle. This moment is significant because it shows the Seamstress’s new found independence and self-respect,…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his short story "Iron Child", Mo Yan deals with the issues of industrialization of China establishing the socialist model of political system. The writer also reflects upon the most acute and burning social issues, particularly, child labor. It should be mentioned that Mo Yan creates the reality in which children appeared to be the most vulnerable in the face of decisions and choices of adults. The general tone of the novel is gloomy. The pace of revolving the plot is predominantly moderate, gravitating towards acceleration. The surrealist vision gives this short story the flavor of reminiscence, since the author, apparently, is recalling and reconsidering his…

    • 809 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the book “Red Scarf Girl” by Ji Li Jiang is about Ji Li, a smart girl who 12 years old had deeply believe in Mao, Chairman of China. However, her behavior was getting change during the Cultural Revolution. At the beginning of the book, Ji li thought that China was a great state with communism and everyone was nice to people. However, things became different. People thought Ji Li’s family was black background because her grandfather was landlord which landlords were considered bad at the time.The Red Guards searched through people who had old tradition thing, and then taken and destroyed. Also, Ji-Li's family was worried about the Red Guards came to search the house because Ji li's grandmother was landlord's wife. In addition, the Cultural Revolution in China is Mao head a group of people that took place and changed people’s old traditions from 1966 until 1976. The Cultural Revolution changed China, but also changed Chinese which Mao implemented communism by eliminating capitalist or old traditions from Chinese society. There several changed in Ji li’ feelings toward the Communist Party.…

    • 684 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In both stories, we see main characters’ experience life changing alterations to their old selves, which causes them to push away from not only society, but also their families. In the end they develop a…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Son of the Revolution

    • 1721 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro's "Son of the Revolution" is a comprehensive story of Liang Heng's life on growing up during the chaotic times of the Chinese revolution. The purpose of this novel was to depict the horrors and hardships of life during the revolution period in china during Mao Zedong's reign. In the beginning of the book, the author portrays that news and ideologies always stated that the government was working for the good of the people of the country. However, as the book unfolds the author reveals that the government is actually exploiting the people through misuse of people's trust. The book also provides insights into the Chinese life during the period of 1954-1978. This 24 year period saw major political movement and aspects of Mao Zedong's thoughts and its influence on people. The personal effects of these historical movements coincide directly with the Liang family providing stirring details through the eyes of a person that went through the actual horrific events. This essay will focus on some historical central issues of the book from the period when the first campaign against rightist occurred in 1957 to the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" in 1966. The role of family, influence of relationships in marriage and divorce, the power of Mao Thought, and the major political reforms that took place in the period depicted in the novel will be discussed.…

    • 1721 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution produced victims, people who suffered from unspeakable wrongs, not limited by any criteria but all segments of society. All parts of China were turned completely upside down. Along with the turmoil came more than just suffering, but pure tragedy. Even the strongest unit throughout all of China’s millennia’s of history, the tight knit family unit, was broken. Particularly profound is the exhibited brutality, victimizing, and sheer loss of humanity that the common people of China subjected each other to during this tumultuous period. This sad theme was seen over and over again throughout the memoir. The devastation Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution inflicted on China has the country still in recovery today. The oldest still standing civilization in history became lawless and un-secure for an entire decade. This resulted in millions of atrocities and injustices taking place throughout the country. Injustice ran rampant everywhere and humanity itself struggled to survive. It awakened the most malicious side of mankind ever seen on such a large scale. To truly appreciate the Communist China 1966-1976 national aberration known as the Great Cultural revolution it is necessary to read an account of a person who actually lived in…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    For a long time I felt extremely lonely, unsecure, and uncertain about my future. I missed my friends, my old teachers, and the nice big house we had in China. For the…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stories from a Ming Collection is a work which reveals clearly people's life in various levels in traditional China. How does the book portray different levels of people's life (including scholars, peasants, military men, working men and women, beggars etc.), and from their life how do you perceive Chinese society?…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this chapter, Chen describes the effects that the Cultural Revolution had on education. These effects were mainly put in place by Chairman Mao, under his idea that a leaf needed to be turned over in Chinese society. He wanted to forget the past and move on to the future. At this time, religion was banned, many historic relics were destroyed, and many educational institution were either restricted or shut down as a work mentality was promoted. “Fifth grade classes were made up of three categories: labor, politics, and self-study. We dug up the playground and turned it into vegetable plots so that young kids could labor under the scorching sun and have empty but healthy minds” (Chapter 11) This shows the effects of Mao’s rule on even the youngest of people. It reveals how Mao wanted people to work to support the country, this was under the communist ideal Mao followed. Many people were either denied school or trained in something useful for the country. I decided to put this under the political organization Universal because I thought that this showed Mao’s direction and implementation of his ideas, which led the…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator telling the story described how her parents had her go outside while they talked about grown up things. When she walked into the house, smoke was everywhere, and she urgently asked her grandma if there was a fire. Then the grandma assured her that there was nothing to worry about, and her parents were just burning pictures wearing mandarin jackets and old-fashioned long gowns considered as fourolds. The Red Scarf Girl immediately became curious, and started to look at the pictures that were being burned. Her parents burned all of the pictures that the Red Guards could possibly think only rich kids could afford things such as riding a camel. This story’s attitude is very different from “China’s Cultural Revolution” because in the Red Scarf Girl, the narrator was only talking about how they were buring pictures, and in “China’s Cultural Revolution” it talked about how things were before and after The Cultural Revolution. ‘“Your mother heard today that photos of people in old-fashioned long gowns and mandarin jackets are considered fourolds. So your parents are burning them in the bathroom”’ (Jiang). This quote from the text is presenting how her parents are buring pictures that are no longer allowed to be kept due to The Cultural…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Sijie Dai introduces us to the lives of two young boys who were transported to the village side in order to be “re-educated”. The boys immediately fall in love with the Little Chinese Seamstress, however they state that she is too “uncivilized”. We see through the following passage, “This fellow Balzac is a wizard. He touched the head of this mountain girl with an invisible finger, and she was transformed, carried away in a dream. It took a while for her to come down to earth. She ended up putting your wretched coat on (which looked very good on her, I must say). She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent” (62), the creation of the social…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chinese women were treated like slaves and did not have the rights or privileges that men had. Women in Chinese society occupied a low and degraded status. The parents of those being married arranged the marriages in Classical China. The outcome of arranged marriages left women with virtually no voice in the society. Women weren’t allowed to have any ambitions as it was deemed unacceptable. It was believed that women did not need to know how to read and write since their main…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Chinese and American cultures clash in this particular novel. The Chinese culture is represented as a high- context culture. A high-text culture is one in which people can understand without saying or revealing too much information. In such cultures people are expected to behave appropriately and respect others. Also, people in high-context cultures set the bar…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story, Wang Lung’s life gives detailed examples of the hardships and struggles of living in a lower social class. Then, as the story progresses, the novel tells of the luxuries and customs of being wealthy. Many people can relate to this novel because it shows what life was a wealthy man and as a poor man. Nowadays, people in third world countries or are just common laborers…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first time the two boys told the story, their voices touched the audience. The effect had been so strong that even the village headman who, for all his harshness, couldn’t hold back the years pouring from his eyes. When Luo was sick with malaria, the little Seamstress brings four sorceresses to help Luo recover. To keep the sorceresses awake and watching over Luo the narrator recounts ‘The Little Flower Seller’. When the narrator told the story, the sorceresses weren’t too engaged and did not show any sign of influence. Luo wakes up in time to say the final line ‘The saying goes that a sincere heart can make a stone blossom. So tell me, was the flower girl’s heart lacking in sincerity?’ The sorceresses could no longer hold back the tears and started crying. Those people show that even the more emotionless person can have emotions, and stories can bring it out. Stories were invented a by people at the dawn of civilization for many reasons. Some stories were invented to tell history, some to show patterns. In the book "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" they discover what stories can do to them, and how powerful they are.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays