Red Scarf Girl Sparknotes

When the story begins, Ji-li is happy and excited about life. She was a joyful and privileged girl who was happy to have what she did. She had a loving family and a wonderful place to live. Students like Ji-li were very smart, bright, and eager to participate in class. It says in the book, "I was an Outstanding Student, an Excellent Young Pioneer, and even the da-dui-zhang, the student chairman of the whole school" (The Liberation Army Dancer, 30) She

Marilyn Chin’s “How I Got That Name,” is a poem about a Chinese-American immgirant’s identity. At the centre of the poem, there’s a conflict between American, and the Chinese culture when the Chinese woman experiences cultural shock. In the opening part of the poem, she touches on how she got her American name- Marilyn “ when my father the paperson in the late 1950s obsessed with a bombshell blonde transliterated “Mei Ling” to “Marilyn.” (lines 9-12) Next, she describes how despite having an American name, [model minoriy] is a tease (42). Although Chin’s the author, she’s not the one in the poem, infact she’s narrating through another Chines-American woman. She later makes her point of losing the identity by comparing

One day, she sees a da-zi-bao implying she has a relationship with a male teacher, and her parents tell her to stay at home to avoid embarrassment. When she comes to school again, she is nominated to become a Red Successor for the future generation of Red Guards but her bad class background is revealed to the class by Du Hai, the boy in her class described as "trouble" by Ji-li, and she is excluded from the nomination. Ji-li finds out that her grandfather is a landlord and her father is being labeled a rightist, although he is not. She is devastated because of this, but knows she can do nothing about it because her father informed her earlier in the book that it was not a good idea to audition and try out even though she had good potential.

The Red Scarf Girl Imagine being promised the opportunities of becoming anything a heart desired, but having it all suddenly destroyed in an instant with no chance of rebuilding it. The Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang, takes place in China from 1966 to 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. It follows the life of Ji-Li Jiang who was born into a family whose ancestors were once a landlord, a position highly looked down upon during the Cultural Revolution. In the Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang, Ji-Li and her family experience loss of education, financial stability, and basic freedoms due to their political situation in the Cultural Revolution.

There are many similarities between the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the American cultural changes we are experiencing today; one of the most glaring of which is the government’s policing of citizen’s identities. In 1966, propaganda posters were commonplace and accepted as ‘normal’. If we compare that to our president’s social media presence, oftentimes using his position in office to say whatever he wants, we start to see the beginning of the comparisons. In Red Scarf Girl, Ji-li’s academic and career choices are limited because of her family's social class.

Throughout the book, Yu-I tells of many old Chinese traditions. In China, women were only meant to please men. If a family had a daughter, they were considered guests and were later carted off for marriage by fourteen. Uneducated women were considered more obedient, so parents often did not let their daughters learn anything other than their duty to their state, family, and husband. By the age of four, boys were no longer allowed to play and began to learn. They were given special tutoring and were required to learn and memorize the books they were taught because their father or their tutor would make them recite what they had read. The Chang’s last names were a poem that changed every generation and when the poem ended, it would restart with the next generation. Their poem was “chia kuo pang ming” which translates to “fine kingdom, bright country”

Today, throughout most of China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is realized as one of the most chaotic and deadly times in chinese history; often referred to as the “ten lost years.” However, during the revolution, many hopeful individuals sought after change and looked toward Mao as

In the story, Red Scarf Girl, Ji-Li faces a problem with her father. Chairman Jin and Thin-Face are trying to persuade her to get her father in jail by exposing his past. Thin-Face and her teacher were talking about how good she was doing in school, but then Ji-Li closed her eyes and saw her father standing on the stage, with his name crossed out in red, and herself condemning him for his crimes, yelling,"Down with Jiang Xi-reng. " Though she had that flash in her mind, and the third to last paragraph, she says he didn't do anything and if he actually did, she would tell them. In the 2nd to last paragraph, Thin-Face finally gets down to the point.

Ji-li always got high scores on tests and school work, like on Teacher Li’s test that only she and Bai Shan got one hundred percent on, and because of this, her classmates were jealous. On the day the students were required to write a da-zi-bao about the teachers and the school, Ji-li found one written about her, claiming she had an inappropriate relationship with a teacher. How she feels about this is shown when she tells An Yi, “How could they say these things? How could they say them? A relationship between Teacher Ke and me?

And I was”(Prologue, 2). In the Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, the author, Jiang Ji-li at first was a girl who believed everything that the government, the Communist Party said and didn’t once question whether it was right or wrong. She was told things like “Heaven and earth are great, but greater still is the kindness of the Communist Party; father and mother are dear, but dearer still is Chairman Mao”(Prologue, 4). People are being hurt for being from a family that had an ancestor or past family member whose actions went against the government. When the Cultural Revolution started to affect

At one point in the story, Ji-Li has to make the decision between breaking away from her family and becoming a loyal servant and follower of Chairman Mao and erasing her bad family background, or staying with her family and suffering the consequences of being a part of a “black family”. “Chairman Mao says you can’t choose your class status but you can choose your future. You can’t choose the family you were born into, but now that you’ve grown up, it’s time for you to choose your future. You can tell your parents you’ll follow Chairman Mao, not them. If they give you any trouble, just come here and tell us.

Despite Ji-Li being a very hard working girl-top of her class-she is given a very hard decision to make that even she struggles with. Before the revolution, she “was proud because [she] was always

Zhang Yimou presents a breathtaking snapshot of life in China from the 1940s to the 70s through the lens of a single family in “To Live”. China faced many tumultuous twists and turns during this time period as the country transitioned out of the bygone feudal society. Each decade brought in a new era: the civil war of the 40s, the communist regime and the “Great Leap forward” in the 50s, and the cultural revolution of the 60s. Zhang captures the essence of these distinct periods within the progression of Fugui’s family, a bittersweet story of perseverance against all odds. The plot of the story is rather simple, following a linear structure. The graceful juxtaposition of various historical elements alongside the underlying primary plot makes this a true masterpiece that manages to condense the lives of individuals into a short chunk of time.

I was a sophomore at Galileo High in San Francisco, and all my Caucasian friends agreed: I was about as Chinese as they were. ” (.) Because June never felt truly connected to her Chinese heritage, it caused a separation between her mother and herself. June talked about how she didn’t understand her mother’s Chinese references. June said, “These kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke two different languages...

This book is a personal narrative of the author’s experiences in China during the Cultural Revolution. It is the story of her coming of age during a gruesome point in Chinese history. She points out in the epilogue that what Chairman Mao did was brainwashing, and how easy it was for people forget their personal ideals and listen to him. I believe that it was her intention to inform the public about what tragedies took place in China during the cultural revolution. In doing this is hoping to educate people about the suffering that can take place under the rule of a corrupt. She also points out in the epilogue that very few people have been punished for their crimes during the revolution so she could also have written