Preview

Essay on "The Red Scarf Girl" by Ji Li Jiang

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1113 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay on "The Red Scarf Girl" by Ji Li Jiang
“The Red Scarf Girl”
“Many friends have asked me why, after all I went through, I did not hate Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution in those years. The answer is simple: we were all brainwashed.”p.276 The book “The Red Scarf Girl” is a memoir written by author Ji Li Jiang recounting what it was like to grow up during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, taking place in China from 1965 to 1968. During this time, a political leader named Mao Zedong convinced the people of China that the “four olds", or the old ways of China, were wrong and that the only way for their country to move forward was to completely revamp their beliefs and ways of life; basically creating a whole new culture for the Chinese. By ways of torture as well as basically brainwashing the people into thinking whatever he said was true, Chairman Mao single handedly shaped China’s culture by removing all anti-communist beliefs. During the first part of this book, little things that Ji Li Jiang witnesses and says hints that Chairman Mao was forcing change onto the people of China. For example, in chapter 2, Ji Li helps destroy a sign for the Great Prosperity Market, saying that names like this are four olds. Many other words and phrases such as “fortune” and “innocent” were also considered four olds, and were not to be used. But this was just the first step of Chairman Mao’s plan. He also convinced his workers, called “the red guards”, to publicly humiliate people for various anti-Communist acts. These public humiliations got more and more violent as time went on; in the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, people were mainly humiliated for their clothing. On page 30, a man’s clothing is cut apart while he is standing in the middle of a street because the tight pants and pointed shoes he wore were considered four olds; “…tight pants and pointed shoes are what the Western bourgeoisie admire. For us proletarians, they are neither good looking nor comfortable” said the Red Guard

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or the Cultural Revolution (1966 -1976) was one of the most dramatic and bleakest periods in the history of the People’s Republic of China. The roots of the Cultural Revolution date back to the late 1950s to the early 1960s when the Great Leap Forward ended in catastrophe. The leader, Mao Zedong lost a lot of his influence among his revolutionary comrades, supporters and eventually, he was removed from actual powers by the members of the party. During his eradication, Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi came to power. They introduced China to “economic reforms based on individual incentives where families are allowed to cultivate their own plots of land - as an attempt to revive the crippled economy. Mao detested such policies, believing that the CCP was becoming too bureaucratic and the Party officials shied away from the values of Communism and revolution.” (Spence, 1990)…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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.…

    • 1587 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful 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
  • Powerful Essays

    Outline of Saboteur

    • 6797 Words
    • 28 Pages

    Mesner, M. Mao 's China and After: A History of the People 's Republic, 3rd ed. Chicago:…

    • 6797 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chinese revolution

    • 552 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The revolution resulted in the destruction of China’s ancient culture and it destroyed the university system and robbed China of a generation of educated people. The poor leadership of the Red Guard also disrupted China’s economy.…

    • 552 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mao Zedong was arguably the most prevalent communist leader in history. He was born a peasant during a very tough period of poverty and, therefore, strived for greatness as a child. His father had a disciplinarian parenting technique, which heavily influenced Mao Zedong in his future communist endeavours. He eventually reached this “greatness” after forming the lower class/ poor citizens into a powerful communist party called the Red Army (Microsoft Corporation., 2001). This army eventually won the Civil War of China and launched Zedong into the beginning of his famous reign. Unfortunately, he abused his excessive amount of authority and ran the country into the grungy soil by creating campaigns like the Great Leap Forward. This specific campaign was created in an attempt to increase agriculture development/industry by “mass mobilization” of people. The citizens were instructed to move to different parts of the country, which may have contradicted their conscience. Although they may have disagreed with Zedong’s authority, the mobilization continued, with everyone obeying his orders anyway. This resulted in horrid disease and eventually killed millions (BBC,…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful 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

    Marxism and Mao

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Peasants swarm into the house of local tyrants and evil gentry who are against the peasant association, slaughter their pigs and consume their grain. At the slightest provocation they make arrests, crown the arrested and parade them though the villages. Because of these behaviors, some people call “going too far”, or “exceeding the proper limits in rights a wrong”. However, Mao Zedong said “first, for ages they have used their power to tyrannize over the peasants and trample them underfoot; that’s why the peasant reacted so strongly”. Also, Mao Zedong said the revolution was a not a dinner party or something gently. It was a storm which was from poor peasant. Without using the great force, it is not possibly to overthrow the deep-rooted authority of the landlord.…

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Cultural Revolution urged the Red Army to see people and their group’s perspectives guarantee that they were loyal Maoists. This was frequently done in an exceptionally savage way as diverse units tried to make themselves seem, by all accounts, to be the genuine delegates of Mao's vision. Therefore numerous individuals were verbally abused as well as physically misused. Even Anchee was frightened by people because who side she was supporting. This prompted numerous passing’s and casualties. In the early phases of the Cultural Revolution, there were substantial scale changes in the initiative of the Communist party. All through the gathering, including the Politburo, authorities who were not considered to be strong of Mao's vision were evacuated and supplanted by individuals all the more in accordance with Mao's vision. The citizens including Anchee min were not doing well under the control of the leader and they lived in a dangerous time…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, in the article, “China’s Cultural Revolution” by Joseph Vitale, it presented The Cultural Revolution by using third person. The passage thoroughly explained how the upper class and middle class disrespected the peasants. In addition, the article explained how the peasants worked on the land to farm…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Cultural Revolution, formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward. The movement paralyzed China politically and significantly negatively affected the country's economy and society.…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Red Scarf Girl Summary

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    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.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mao Zedong Dbq

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Source B shows Mao Zedong’s beliefs about his rapid socialization, which is very successful. Mao shows anger and rage in his speech towards party members who wanted the progress of China to be slow down because he believed his movement was becoming increasingly successful. Source E on the other hand, displays Mao’s policies in an alternate manner. The author explains that the Chinese economy was hurt by Mao’s attempts to rapidly industrialize it. He stated that the economy did not stabilize until Mao took a break from politics. When Mao returned to the realm of politics again, he introduced a policy that would transform Chinese society. These policies would offset the progress that was made during Mao’s political absence and would also introduce more problems and strife into society. Source B shows approval towards Mao’s attempts to swiftly change society however; source E shows the damaging effects for China…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “...the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers are...creatively studying and applying Mao Tse Tung's thought...”(Source 2)This quote uses the word creatively to create a more positive outlook on the revolution, while in reality, people are experiencing harsh and crueler treatment. For example, in this quote, “...beatings were a collective activity...no sense of guilt...rather an excited, giddy atmosphere”(Document 8)This shows that the way the citizens are “creatively” applying Mao’s thoughts is through the beatings. In the present time, people would consider cruel and harsh, but in China during the Cultural Revolution thought beating was ok, and it was more positive. These positive feelings come from the first piece of evidence in the beginning of the paragraph. The citizens are trying to instill Mao’s thoughts to people who were still part of the old customs. Using the word creatively makes the citizens think, “Ok, all the citizens can do anything special, like beating and writing dazibao to denounce them and make them realize their mistakes.” In the end, the messages conveyed by the government were more positive because most of the propaganda was used to convince the citizens that everything they are doing to apply Mao’s beliefs is ok. This made some of the citizens’ experience harsher due to the beatings(if you were being a “disobedient”…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leftover Women Analysis

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Communist Party Revolution in 1949 wanted to take control of China and the people (Nam). The major control strategy the party adopted was to use propaganda amongst a nation. During the time, anything being published or printed to the public must have been approved by the government (Zhang). In China, discrimination not only in gender but also in class and race continuously harassed people throughout time. While many countries nowadays strive for equality of sexes in terms of their right, responsibility and duty, Chinese women are still facing unequal treatment of the government as repeating or continuing the past.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays