Scarf Girl, by Ji-Li Jiang, is about a girl living in the 1960’s during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The story starts off with Ji-Li’s “perfect” life in communist China, and she lands an audition for the Liberation Army Dancer. When she comes home to announce the amazing news to her mother and family, she realizes that her family isn’t perfect, but her country is worse. Through the story, more and more corruption comes into China, and more propaganda is pushed onto Ji-Li and her fellow classmates. One example of propaganda is a da-zi-bao, a large, handwritten poster, made to directly attack or criticize people, majorly people who ‘oppose’ the communist party. This story’s perspective is from Ji-Li and students who oppose the communist party of China during the Cultural Revolution. This is the best choice for the story’s perspective because it shows how despite a person’s nationality or the country’s level of overall nationalism, there are always a few people who don’t believe in the corruption or the current state of their country. From the very beginning of the book, Ji-Li Jiang was very pro-communist and nationalist, but towards the middle and most definitely towards the end, she realizes the wickedness of her country. Mainly this change happens through the constant amounts of propaganda being thrown at her, but also because of the communist party’s hatred for her family's history. The importance of this change is because it separates Ji-Li from the rest of her country and classmates, which kind of gives her a feel of isolation. With this isolation, it leads her to create a personal story different from the rest, and a real piece of literature most definitely worth reading. This change tells the reader that there is, in fact, imperfection in even the most ‘perfect’ of societies, or how perfect the government puts forth. The reader’s perspective changes throughout the story because Ji-Li's perspective changes. The story, since it is a memoir based on actual events, it is written in 1st person. This means that the reader only gets information as fast as the main character does. This means that towards the beginning, my thoughts on the communist party in China was that it wasn't as bad as people say, of course being influenced slightly by background knowledge, unsupplied to the main character at the time, but later on in the book it changed, along with Ji-Li. I started to realize things that I didn't know, like what it actually felt like to be hated by your government, or hiding from spies in and out of your home. Life in communist China was hard, and Red Scarf Girl was the one who taught me. I would personally recommend this book to almost everybody globally. I think it is very important that developed, capitalist countries realize that revolution is a very common thing in humanized society, and that with the advances in human thought, we put into perspective the sophistication of corruption. Since maybe the Vietnam war, we haven't had many major revolts that the U.S. were involved in, but they are always problems somewhere, and I personally believe that we have had a privilege to have avoided them here in the comforts of our own homes.
Where I got the book: purchased on Kindle. This was read for my daughter’s Book Wizards group (composed of cognitively disabled adults) and I actually borrowed her Kindle Fire so I could experience Whispersync immersion reading, where you hear the audiobook narration and the ebook follows along. I found the process a bit slow, as I clearly read much faster than the narrator, but it was kind of relaxing and it did focus my mind on the book. I read much of it in the plane, and found listening through my earbuds pleasantly distracting from the small children. Why do I always end up near small children on domestic flights? ’Tis a mystery.Anyway, the book. This is a memoir ostensibly written for a young audience, because it covers the writer’s life from the age of 12 to 14. And yet as an adult reader I found it sufficiently challenging, since it deals with the Mao years of Chinese history and there was a lot I don’t know. At the time of writing we’re in the 1960s, when the Cultural Revolution is well under way. Ji-Li has grown up in an environment where Chairman Mao is pretty much worshipped and to be a good revolutionary is the pinnacle of every child’s desire. She buys into everything she’s been taught completely and as a class valedictorian and athlete she envisions a glowing future for herself.The first sign of trouble comes when Ji-Li is invited to audition for a revolutionary performance troupe. Her parents inform her that she won’t succeed because of their class status. This was a notion with which I wasn’t familiar, but it pervades the book—Ji-Li’s grandfather was a landlord, one of the “black” or anti-revolutionary categories (Mao’s thinking put landlords and criminals in the same basket). As the Cultural Revolution progresses, Ji-Li and her family are increasingly victimized and stigmatized, stripped of their belongings and forced to serve their community in menial roles. Ji-Li comes under pressure (and you need to remember she’s still a child at that point) to dissociate herself from her family in order to become a true revolutionary.Narrator Christina Moore did a good job putting a voice to Ji-Li’s story, capturing both the revolutionary fervor of the young, Ji-Li’s devastation as her life changes, and her inner struggle to hold on to her sense of self and cope with the shame she feels. I think part of my feeling that the audio was slow was that Moore was narrating for a younger audience who need a little extra time to grasp the new concepts that the book brings to a Western audience.Even for adults, I’d recommend this memoir as a gateway to understanding the Cultural Revolution and seeing how the attempt to build a fairer society gets twisted into a dog-eat-dog power struggle once you apply dogma (pun not intended, but I’m quite pleased with it) to people’s lives. There’s a glossary at the end to help guide you through the more unfamiliar terms, and I enjoyed Jiang’s writing.
What do You think about Red Scarf Girl (1999)?
The Red Scarf Girl is a true story about the author Ji-Li Jiang. It focuses on the Cultural Revolution in the 60s, 1966 to be exact. Ji-Li was a bright, gifted; twelve-year-old girl, but soon nothing will be the same. Ji-Li derives from a prosperous Chinese family with a history of well-off landlord ancestors. The Revolution’s main spiel was that the “old culture” must be long forgotten, and those who were wealthy were the cause of all of China’s suffering. Thus begins the riveting journey of Ji
—Ange Batie
I've only read a few books that center on the Cultural Revolution in China. This one is different in that it's a memoir and focusses very specifically on 2 years of young girl's life when she's 12-14 years old; very impressionable and insecure years for many girls, under normal situations. Mao's Cultural Revolution was mayhem, from what I've gathered from the few books I've read. People denouncing neighbours, people being wary & afraid of speaking out, people being pronounced "black" (not with the "red" regime) for having family heirlooms or pictures showing past wealth or comforts. It was an awful time of uncertainty and fear to have to live through.One thing this book shows is how a person who truly believed the goodness and leadership of Mao, was enthusiastic in all of Mao's initiatives and who tried so hard to be a good Red, slowly turned her way of thinking around because of how the Reds treated her and her family & friends. Fanaticism doesn't draw people into the fold but turns them away.This is an interesting look at one families trials through a difficult time.
—Petra
This was an interesting book from a historical perspective, as It gave a lot of insight into what it was like to live during the cultural revolution. Towards the beginning of the book I was able to connect with all the characters, and their emotions were very real. As the book progressed, however, It began to frustrate me how ignorant the characters were. I get that this was to show how brain-washed the characters were, but it began to become unbelievable and unrealistic, turning an insightful and interesting story into one slightly boring and repetitive. I suppose I can never know if this book was an accurate representation of the cultural revolution or not :D. I would reccomend this to someone wanting to learn about the cultural revolution or someone interested in history.
—Rose
