Red Scarf Girl Essay

In the novel Red Scarf Girl, by Jiang Ji-li many bad things happen to Jiang Ji-li and her family. One such thing is Ji-li being put in a worse school just because she was in a certain neighborhood. This is very similar to the story of Zhao Lianhai, who spoke out against the government’s idea to force kids to drink tinted milk, which ended up killing at least 6 kids. Another example of bad thing going on in Ji-li’s life is when her teachers, who before were highly esteemed, can now no longer teach what they are supposed to. They can only teach what the communist party tells them to. This is similar to the story of Chinese dissident Tan Zuoren, who wrote and protested about an earthquake in 2008 that killed thousands of school children because of shoddy buildings not strong enough to stay up. And the last example is when Ji-li’s father, Lao Jiang was imprisoned for no reason other than a complete judgment call on his arresters. This story is in turn similar to the story of Gao Zhisheng, who was illegally arrested for taking the cases (he was a lawyer) of people that the Chinese government does not like. In all this it is clear to see that the Chinese government has kept its policy the same from the Cultural Revolution all the way up to modern times. And that they have been able to hold to such a cruel and strict regime goes to show that the Chinese Government is corrupt and does not care about their people.

Our first example of Ji-li being treated wrongly during the Cultural Revolution is when she is put into a school which is not as good as Shanghai just because of where she lives. Although it is a decent school, she could have had a much more successful job or life then the one she will have now. But during the Cultural Revolution, it seems that all schools were “made dumber” and were only allowed to teach certain things. For example, in English class the main thing done was recite slogans and memorize, but there was no mention of any actual hard learning,