Where Are You Running To Ma Jian Analysis

A Person’s Purpose in “Where Are You Running To?”

“Where are you running to?” Although that’s both the opening sentence and a reflection of the last sentence of Ma Jian’s “Where are you running to?”, it’s also the moral of the story. A moral that’s supported by the culture and revolutions going on throughout the times the story was written. Where the main character, Chunyu is running to find her identity in the socially drastic circumstances. Ma Jian’s story couldn’t have been set in any other place rather than China. An overpopulated socialist China that was being called the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and was being motivated by new ways evoked by Mao Zedong, a Chinese communist revolutionary poet, political theorist and founding father

Supporting the right political party could deem your class often. Which could explain how Chunyu had decided to cut ties with their parents Rightest beliefs and join the new communist forces. “Mass route illustrated a political philosophy that professional leadership was inherently elitist. However, formal participation of urban citizens and workers in decision making concealed manipulation and co-opted citizens into loyalty to socialist organizations (Hirschman, 1970; Etzioni, 1975; Kolarska and Howard, 1980).” (Qian, 2016) After her release from the labor camp and Old Lui’s reinstatement into the political party, it is obvious that none of the stories would make sense if it were a different setting. Chunyu’s aid towards the community and striving towards the political party gave her the position of “Model Family Planning Officer” (pg 18) Her position made her someone admired and respected in her community just as the manipulation of the socialist organization had wanted. Another distinguishing factor of China is the inclusion of females in political parties. China's women, such as Chunyu are willed to become leaders of the community and help spread Chinese culture. These genderless roles allowed Chunyu to become Chairwoman and as well as have gone through labor camp, just as much as Old Lui. “For Lan and her generation, socialist gender equality was in large part about gender sameness, whereby women were considered as equally capable as men—whether in labor, academics, or politics—unhindered by her sex.” (Chen, Xiaobei and Lan Chen, 1944) However these expectations seemed to have trapped Chunyu, making her run from them just as much as her son ran from her. After she found her own freedom and was able to feel the same emotions from her childhood where she delicately played the piano. She became unhindered and