Canadian author William E. Bell’s young adult novel Forbidden City: A Novel of Modern China (1990), is set against the backdrop of the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Canadian teenager Alex Jackson’s journalist father takes him to the Chinese capital city, where, father and son are caught up in the student protests in Tiananmen Square. They’re separated, and Alex finds himself on the run while in possession of video footage that the Chinese government wants to destroy. His only hope is the student protesters. Exploring themes of coming-of-age, political repression, and the importance of journalists and truth-tellers, Forbidden City was banned in China for its unflinching depiction of the regime’s brutal approach towards protesters, while it was critically acclaimed in the rest of the world. …show more content…
It’s too dangerous to return to the Beijing Hotel, but they come up with the idea that Alex can ride on the back of a rickshaw to the Canadian embassy. Alex dresses up in Chinese clothes, and the rickshaw is made up to look like it’s delivering appliances. Alex rigs up his camcorder to take video along the way. The rickshaw runs into some soldiers along the way, but they’re able to bluff their way out of it. They take shelter in a temple for the night, and approach the embassy in the morning. Shortly before arriving, they’re stopped again. The soldiers find out that Xin-Hua is a student protester, and shoot her. They take Alex into custody and take him to the airport, where he and Ted are reunited. They arrive home, and Alex’s mother comes over to talk to them. While taking off his clothes, Alex finds that he has video cassettes and rolls of film that went undetected by the soldiers. He has to decide what to do with them. He knows that he’ll never be the same after what he and his father experienced in
The Great Wall does outweigh the cost because it protected the Silk Road, it served as a border, and even though it didn’t work 100% of the time it helped protect China. The Great wall was worth the cost because it helped protect the Silk Road. " According to poetry and legend, tens of thousands of soldiers died from hunger, sickness, and extreme heat or cold. No exact numbers of deaths are available" (Document E).
Salam and Snowden, then drove their stolen white box truck and backed it up against the bay door of the Alkaline Water Company. The two breached the water company’s portion of the warehouse and acquired a forklift. Snowden then used the forklift to drive through the shared wall that separated the Alkaline Water Company from Bella Furniture. After breaching Bella Furniture’s portion of the warehouse, an alarm was triggered causing Salam and Snowden to retreat back to Caldwell in the blue Toyota Camry where the three waited for approximately
“Saboteur”, written by Ha Jin exposes a difficult period in post-revolutionary China and the negative consequences on people’s lives. Mr. Chiu, a scholar who does not view himself as a common citizen, was wrongfully arrested while on honeymoon with his bride. As an egotistical man who thinks he is above everyone else, Mr. Chiu is arrogant and never takes ownership for his actions. This machoism subjects Mr. Chui to maltreatment from the police that ironically transforms the once seemingly innocent Mr. Chiu to a man consumed by vengeance. Ha Jin’s proficient use of ironic tone and conflict told through the omniscient view of his main character reinforces the story’s main theme: life experiences shape our character and have the power to transform us into a person we despise.
Xiong uses battles, executions, assassinations, and scandals to appeal to readers of any genre. Once a reader gets into the book they are hooked in the epic events of the book and the deep look into the ruling class. Unfortunately, Xiong’s novel might somewhat difficult to get into for many readers with no experience in Chinese history. Xiong also attempts to utilize dialogue that often comes off as underdeveloped or simplistic.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a nonfiction novel that takes is based around true events surrounding the building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, a monumental event that holds great prestige, not unlike hosting the Olympics or Super Bowl today. The creation of the Chicago World’s Fair was designed to celebrate the discovery of america by Columbus, as well as to show the world that Chicago had recovered from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed most of the city. This bid to host the World’s Fair in America followed the great success of the 1889 French Exposition in Paris, where the Eiffel Tower, built to be a temporary landmark, stood as a monument to French beauty and sophistication. In this non-linear novel
The very first page of this book we are presented with a letter from Alex, who is obviously leaving home. The letter I believed was a really cool way to give us the background of the story we needed to know on a personal level. This was our first look at Alex. He seems excited to be out in the Alaskan bush. Not too many people would be excited about that.
A single needle attached to a pen holder took away someone’s identity. A pair of disheveled, ill-fitting rags stripped someone of their individuality. Depriving someone of basic necessities took away their soul. Upon arrival at the camps Elie and his father were separated from his female family members, never to see them again. Immediately, Elie along with the other prisoners were subjected to camp life.
A stolen life banned This book is a book that deals with real life. A life in which no one would ever want to endure. This book is about how a 11 year old girl was kidnapped and her freedom was taken away. This paper will discuss why and how this book "A Stolen Life" is banned from libraries and schools and why schools and libraries choose not to have it? If we want to understand why this book is banned or challenged first we would have to know what that means.
“Her actions remind me that, even under unbearable circumstances, one can still believe in justice,” in David Henry Hwang’s foreword, in Ji-Li Jiang’s memoir Red Scarf Girl, commemorated even during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution anyone can overcome adversity (9). Ji-Li Jiang was a young teenager at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and living through a very political time in China’s history made Ji-Li into the person she is today. Ji-Li’s intelligence, her choices, and family devotion made her into the headstrong and successful person she is today. Even when Ji-li thought she was unintelligent, others saw she was wise. There were many moments when Ji-Li was reminded she was very smart.
The Devil in the White City The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book written by Erik Larson that reads like a novel. The book follows two, real main characters, during the building and existence of the Chicago World’s fair. The first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham.
Reagan Carter Period 4 Devil in the White City Reading Log The "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is a nonfiction novel that reveals the chaos of Chicago. The novel mostly takes place in Chicago around 1890-1893 while towards the end of the novel it takes place in 1895 Philadelphia. Larson recreated two men that would live in Chicago. The two men will have different plots and will each provide a meaning in one another.
In this essay “No one died in Tiananmen Square” by William Lutz, it is evident that the events displayed confirm the warnings that Orwell shared in Nineteen Eighty – Four. This essay resembled the novel by George Orwell in many different ways, both exploit the government to manipulate the mind of an individual over the actual reality and both governments overuse and abuse there powers. In “No one died in Tiananmen Square” the government uses violence to stop the peaceful protesters. This is similar to 1984 because the totalitarian government in Oceania uses violence if they do not obey the rules of Big Brother. A quote from 1984, from part 2 of chapter 10 displaying violence for commenting thought crime is “One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia’s solar
Gene Luen Yang offers a humanistic perspective on western imperialism in China during the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century in his graphic novel Boxers, a tragic narrative about Chinese grassroots resistance against foreign occupation in which an armed revolution ultimately fails. The novel focuses on religious identity, and cultural connections in the face of invasion. Boxers highlights the negative effects of imperialism through clashes between different religions, ideologies and power structures. Therefore, the criticism of western imperialism presented in Boxers could support a world systems theory approach to international relations because it shows to exploitation through westernization and the squandering of cultural
Atwood parallels the Cultural Revolution in China to the how the Gilead government gains power and control over the United States. The Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution to assert his control over the Chinese government. Zedong ordered the nation to cleanse themselves of “impure” aspects of Chinese society. This was done by shutting down schools and a massive youth mobilization. The students formed groups called the Red Guards, they attacked and harassed members of China’s elderly and
He was traveling by car until a flash flood happened causing him to abandon his car and travel by foot. After that he burned his remaining cash and began to go by the name Alexander Supertramp. Alex first met a hippie couple named Jan and Rainey. Rainey told Alex that his marriage with Jan is rocky and that brought back a flashback for Alex when his parents would fight all the time and abuse each other in front of him and his sister. He then helped rekindle