Okay, so it's July and I have made ONE of SIX necessary posts to this blog. So, the question is obvious, what have I been doing instead? Let's look at the list.
-Watching YouTube videos. I am obsessed by this group called "Improv Everywhere." They're hilarious.
-Writing. Not even on my stories either, just random bits and bobbles.
-Becoming hopelessly obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera. Like, unhealthily so.
-Reading other books not on my list. Shameful.
-Packing. I'm leaving for camp the 8th and for vacation the 14th.
SO
I'm going to have to squeeze a lot of posts into a little time.
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Thankfully for me, I started on my second book, Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang, yesterday. I was hesitant on this book, and when I say hesitant, I mean I was really dragging my feet. When I first bought the book at Barnes & Noble, I didn't even read the blurb, which was really a first for me. I had hi-lighted it on my list of potential books based on Mrs. Ryan's summary without much thought on the overall content. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I looked closer at the cover to find that it's a memoir. (Cue dramatic doom music) DUH DUH DUHHH. I HATE nonfiction books. Hate them. Despise them. Always have for some reason. So here I am with a MEMOIR in one hand, and a science fiction book in the other (which, I might add, is less than half as long.) HMMM. Not a hard choice. I breezed through Clone Codes in one afternoon (on field day, as a matter of fact) and then piddled around to make even one post about it. Which is why it's July and I'm only 1/6 of the way done with my summer homework.
When I did finally sit down with this book, I realized, hey. Not all nonfiction is boring garbage. In order to motivate myself to read, and to make the necessary three posts about this book in one week to put me back on track, I have devised a BRILLIANT PLAN! The book, counting one page of the glossary, is 273 pages long. So what does that mean? I have to make a post every 91 pages! Yay!
It's motivation because I really need to get this done and also because this is a REALLY GOOD BOOK. I'm genuinely surprised by how much I'm enjoying it.
Okay. As I've said before, this book is a memoir of a girl growing up during the reign of Chairman Mao in China. I knew very little of the Chairman before even starting this book, only that he attempted to obliterate traditional Chinese culture, and that as a result, many ancient cultural arts were lost forever.
Not the prettiest picture of a man, that's for sure.
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| A propaganda poster of the Chairman |
The book begins at the start of his "Destroy the Four Olds" campaign. In order to move China forward, he sought to destroy all old customs, cultures, habits, and ideas and replacing them with the Four News; anything that could be seen as "rightist" and "anti-communist" was strongly opposed. Things like old store signs that were considered "fourolds" were taken down and destroyed by the zealous public to much acclaim. Ji-li witnessed one such mob while walking with her grandmother, a large wooden sign with gold lettering; so large, in fact, the people needed an axe to break it. Student patrollers known as the Red Guards had also taken to tracking down people whose clothing is considered Western, such as having pant legs that are tight. In such an instance, which Ji-li also witnessed, the man's pants were cut open to his knees and his shoes were destroyed. At the same time as this reformation, many changes were being made to the schools as well. Instead of taken exams to get into junior high school, the students were first assigned by their teachers, then reassigned by districts, which devastated Ji-li as she had been hoping for one particular school and knew she could earn her place there. Students were encouraged to make posters called da-zi-bao criticizing the schools, the teachers, and even each other. Ji-li experienced this personally when a da-zi-bao was made attacking her for having such good grades in math and was accusing her of having a special relationship with the teacher.
It began to amaze me, as the book has gone on, how cruel the children were to her. She was not allowed to join a group known as the Red Succession because her grandfather had been a landlord and her father was accused of being a rightist. Not only this, but the other children who had been allowed to attacked her verbally, calling her a bourgeoisie ("a member of the middle class; used as a derogatory term during the Cultural Revolution to mean someone who enjoys and admires a luxurious "capitalist" lifestyle," pg. 273) as well as humiliating a woman for the same reason, pasting da-zi-bao posters all over her front door and forcing her too read a confession of guilt. All of this, and they're only 12 years old. I shudder to think what they'll do as they mature. Well, that's as far as I am for now.
At this point in the story, I'm getting an ominous feeling that the worst is yet to come. Ji-li's family is already afraid of their house being raided to search for fourolds belongings, and that's usually a sign that it will be. I'll be sure to let you know if and when it does, because I'm getting very anxious about this whole business. It's like reading a story about WWII where the main characters are Jews in hiding; you know what's going to happen, it's just a matter of waiting until it does. The two situations are very much the same: both families fear for their lives, under the rule of a radical government that seeks to eliminate their way of life. True, Ji-li's family is still in their home and lives a fairly normal life, but the anxiety is still ther. Ji-li obviously survives, but I can't help but worry about her parents, grandmother, and siblings. Maybe I'm just a worried reader, who knows. That's all for now, folks, I'll be back soon with another update. Thank you for your time and don't forget to tip your waitresses.
