ipl-logo

Essay On Ji-Li Jiang's 'Red Scarf Girl'

1081 Words5 Pages

“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. One day when the Liberation Army Dancer visited, Ji-Li told her dad that evening, “I [am] an Outstanding Student, an Excellent Young Pioneer, and even the da-dui-zhang, the student chairman of the whole school” (20). Explaining she was knowledgeable, through examples of her success, meant she knew that her political background would not get in her way of participating in the Cultural Revolution. A few years later, during the Cultural Revolution, Ji- Li was in junior high, …show more content…

Many of her experiences during the Cultural Revolution changed how she thought, and it helped her to realize who she was. Her intelligence, conflict between pursuing politics and staying loyal to her family, and her devotion to her family have made Ji-Li into the experienced and successful person that she is today. Her experience and success is shown through her novel’s success and her care for her family when she moved to the United States. The Cultural Revolution changed Ji-Li in many different ways, and those changes improved her morale, there are many times that are very formative throughout our daily

Show More
Related

How Does Ji-Li's Character Change

518 Words | 3 Pages

Now Ji-LI realizes that the supporters and the red guards and hurting people and embarrassing some people. What caused Ji-li to change is she started to understand what Mao-Zedong was doing and how it was affecting her life and her family’s life. But like it said earlier in the essay she got a lot smarter and her ability to understand helped her realize that the revolution was a bad idea and she rebelled from the revolution and when she rebelled she had issue with a lot of things like thin-face looking for the letter and the guards treated her awfully because her family had a troubled

Read More

Transformation Of Jiang Ji-Li: The Cultural Revolution

1095 Words | 5 Pages

Ji-li even acted as a red guard as well, naming stores or places that had four olds. However throughout the book, Ji-li’s point of view of the cultural revolution changes. Her father is detained, her house gets searched, she is excluded from activities, and she had to choose between her family or Mao. In Ji-li’s memoir she explains about the cultural revolution and about Mao.

Read More

Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Essay

1203 Words | 5 Pages

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written by Dai Sijie, is set in 1971 during the China’s Cultural Revolution. The book starts with two boys, unnamed narrator and his friend Luo being sent from their hometown Chengdu to a small village in Phoenix Mountain to be “re-educated”. The book continues with them skillfully living through the harsh village life with their talent of storytelling and their western knowledge gained from books. Throughout the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie illustrates different types of literature and how it transforms the character’s life, action and their personalities in both good and bad way. This book is one unique novel about two boys and one little girl’s transformation by the magical

Read More

The Red Scarf Girl Critical Analysis

560 Words | 3 Pages

The theme of “survival” could be related to any book. In the book, The Red-Scarf Girl: A Memoir Of The Cultural Revolution, Ji-li had to overcome all the challenges such getting called a black whelp, getting humiliated and other things that some people can’t bear that pain. The theme of “survival” does relate to this book because Ji-li had to bear public humiliation and other things in order to survive. Furthermore, the theme of “survival” relates to this book, The Red-Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. Ji-li’s family survived in challenging environments by not speaking up and bears the pain.

Read More

Discrimination In 'Red Scarf Girl'

435 Words | 2 Pages

Jiang Ji-li and her family were forced to make difficult decisions due to the prejudice on their family name. Ji-li was not able to audition for a place in The Central Liberation Arts Academy because her family’s political background would not have passed the strict recruiting requirements. She was certain that she had a good chance of qualifying based on her skills, but she obeyed her father’s instructions to not compete. Ji-li felt that it was unfair for her to be judged by the position of her ancestors rather than her individual talent.

Read More

Historical Criticism Of The Saboteur By Ha Jin

845 Words | 4 Pages

The Historical Criticism of Communism Ha Jin’s The “Saboteur” provides an insight of the injustice that the Communist government in China committed toward its citizens. In other words, the treatment of Mr. Chiu and the fear that the bride expressed was the direct emotions of those during the time of the rise of communism. This representation simply provides the argument that the communism is a route of sabotage of the people. With a historical criticism perspective, the reflection of the police and Mr. Chiu’s reactabion presents this argument and provides strong evidence that this story displays the indictment of a communist government.

Read More

What Is The Coming Of Age Experience In Red Scarf Girl By Mao Zedong

664 Words | 3 Pages

She even thought about risking her life, saying “Should I continue to live at all?” (Jiang 259). She hated the Cultural Revolution so much that she didn’t want to be alive anymore, which was a strong statement for Ji-Li to make. Instead of being a part of the Cultural Revolution, she wanted to take care of her family, as she mentions talking about helping her family she thinks, “Once my life had been defined by my goals: to be a da-dui-zhang, to participate in the exhibition, to be a Red Guard. They seemed unimportant to me now.”

Read More

Gender Roles In Uncle Chinh's Paradise Of The Blind

1432 Words | 6 Pages

“I looked at my uncle and spoke softly. ‘You should have told me about the family... I came thousands of miles to see you.’ Stupefied, he stammered a few unintelligible sounds and made a few awkward gestures,” (170). Standing up to Uncle Chinh must have required Hang to be very courageous, because as a male family member, her elder, a Communist official, and a man in general, Chinh is generally expected by society to maintain all the power over Hang.

Read More

Confucius Lives Next Door Summary

602 Words | 3 Pages

R. Reid wrote Confucius Lives Next Door to illustrate how the teachings of the ancient philosopher and political activist, known in the west as Confucius, have influenced East Asian cultures as they have risen in economic power, how Confucian ethos are expressed in contemporary Japanese’s culture and how Confucius’s teachings revolve around loyalty between individuals and the groups they belong to. Those groups include one’s family, his neighbors, the company he works for or the school he attends, and any other group of people he associates with. Being a responsible member of a group is central to East Asian culture versus the Western, particularly American, focus on individuality. Reid’s book provides both anecdotal and empirical evidence on the cultural results of this group focused philosophy on

Read More

Qiu Jin Summary

702 Words | 3 Pages

The writer Qiu Jin was telling story of a girl who experienced a Chinese woman’s life through the period of feudal China to the semi-colonialism China. The girl’s name is Jurui, and she experienced every unfair torment that the old society imposed on girls and women. Although Jurui was unhappy and even angry about the way she was treated, she could not do anything to help herself until she read some readings describing how western women were respected and educated outside of China. After secret talks with a few of her friends who had same ambitions with her, they fled to Japan together for an education and planned to come back to free the women and the nation. If Jurui had been born some decades before, she wouldn’t have a chance to be enlightened

Read More

Fa Mu Lan's The Woman Warrior

1155 Words | 5 Pages

Others feel that Fa Mu Lan and Brave Orchid’s stories are meant to intertwine. “In her memoirs, Kingston tells of her search for women role models, interweaving imaginative stories concerning such characters as Fa Mu Lan, a Chinese woman warrior, with memories of her own relationship with her strong-willed mother, Brave Orchid” (Franks 2). Franks’ belief in the similarities between Brave Orchid and Fa Mu Lan suggest that each Woman Warrior is connected, and that each one has a different purpose in the story. With Franks supporting the idea that Brave Orchid and Fa Mu Lan are similar, she has an interesting addition to her analysis. “Even now,” Kingston says, “China wraps double binds around my feet.”

Read More

A Daughter Of Han Character Analysis

1582 Words | 7 Pages

Jiaqi Han ANT 3364 2/9/2017 With Mao’s intervention of Communism, the revolution marked an end for all the imperial traditions, shifting the old Chinese cultural values to a new stage. Mao’s establishment of the people’s republic of China carried out in all aspects of the Chinese society, introducing the new ideals for the culture to evolve and to prevail. When the People’s Republic of China was initiated in 1949, a change in gender roles has also taken place in the Chinese society. The book, A Daughter of Han, illustrated the cultural revolution in the late 19th century portraited by the protagonist Ning Lao Tai Tai (Granny Ning), who participate in the drastic culture shift and gives reader an understanding from a person who lives in the

Read More

Mao Zedong: Bright Sheng

868 Words | 4 Pages

In Shanghai, ten years after the end of Japanese occupation and six years into the brutal reign of Mao Zedong, Sheng Zongliang was born. His mother, a trained pianist, began passing on her craft to her young son as early as age four. By the time he was a teenager, however, Chairman Mao had begun the Great Cultural Revolution to purge China of its ancient heritage and political dissent. As a part of the Revolution, government officials came to households across the land, destroying objects and arresting people deemed to be ‘obsolete’. One of these obsolete objects destroyed was the piano on which Sheng received lessons from his mother.

Read More

Aftershock: Movie Analysis

1004 Words | 5 Pages

On the other hand, it leaves a kind of profound thinking about the typical ordinary Chinese ideology and how great is the impact of such a decision on people’s

Read More

Amy Tan A Pair Of Tickets Analysis

1309 Words | 6 Pages

This peculiarly specific list showed that as a first-generation American, she was constantly scrutinizing the small actions that her mother demonstrated, and she was embarrassed, although it is not likely anyone else ever noticed. However, as she got older, Jing-Mei realized the fact that she was “becoming Chinese.” She still did not truly understand her mother or the beauty of Chinese culture, but her acceptance was the first step of the long excursion of

Read More

More about Essay On Ji-Li Jiang's 'Red Scarf Girl'

Related Topics

Open Document