Saturday, August 23, 2014

Question Commander-1st Rotation

The first few chapters of Red Scarf Girl are amazing to readers with young eyes. It clearly shows how the cultural revolution in 1966 affected people in various ways, yet some big questions were left in the air, at least for me.

First, since Ji-li was not able to do the audition, what would have changed in the stories further development?
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To begin with, I think mostly everything that has happened might have changed. In my opinion, if she  had went to do the auditioned and passed the test, her perspective of how China is changing might have been pretty different. Also, I think she would have maybe not cared so much about the revolution, and probably wouldn't have been part of it herself. On the other hand, if Ji-li had done the audition but hadn't passed, I think that the story would change its focus from the cultural revolution more to Ji-li's dance. Maybe the whole book would have been focused on her trying to do those perfect moves in perfect times, and the cultural revolution would be a side conflict that was mentioned in one or two of the chapters. Who knows? In conclusion, I think that if Ji-li would have done the audition, lots would have changed in her life.      

Next, Ji-li mentioned that her family is privileged, or in her own words, "lucky". Do you think that if her family wasn't this way, they might have let her go to the audition?
                                                                         
First of all, this question can be discussed on both sides, yes and no, but think the answer is that yes, they would have let her do the audition for a couple of reasons. To commence with, maybe if they didn't have as much money and other benefits her father wouldn't really had ever wondered about what the people from the audition do, which related back to the family's political problems, therefore consenting her to do it. Moreover, maybe her parents would have found this a great opportunity for her to develop her skills and have a possible career and get a lot of money. For me, they would let her do this since money would be a very important matter for the family. All in all, if Ji-li's family hadn't had as many benefits as they did, she would have probably done the audition.
                                                                           
Finally, if the newspaper hadn't promoted the cultural revolution as much as it did, would it be as powerful?

Media is a very important thing in the world for the past years. What we consider today's media would be Facebook, online books/newspapers, TV and etc. In the past what was the most popular media would be with no doubt the newspaper. I think that if the newspaper hadn't promoted the Chinese revolution in 1966, maybe it wouldn't have been so popular and people might not have even agreed with it since nobody "important" would agree with  abolishing the old ideas. Pushing this further,  if the newspaper hadn't spread the word about the cultural revolution, probably most people wouldn't even have known about it and what were its purposes. Everything considered, it s clear that without the use of the newspaper to tell people about the revolution, it might not even have happened.

3 comments:

  1. Over all I do agree with every thing that you wrote in this post. However I do not agree with you when it come to your last point. I reall think that the cultural REVOLUTION would have happened even though the newspaper did not publish such big articles. The cultural revolution was somthing really big in China so I dont think that the press was something critial for it to become big.

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  2. Lucas, your post brought many interesting new ideas to the table. Also it talked about how unlucky she was and it made me realise how dreadful her situation was. I showed me how bad things could get and put in perspective how big the cultural revolution was.

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    1. Thanks Gabe,
      I agree that the cultural revolution was a very big thing in china. It was something very important for everyone who lived in that time, and if it was happening here it would also be important, right? Talking about that, do you think that if there was a cultural right now would it be different or similar than the one in China?
      Lucas T.

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