The Power of the Voice Group 4: Red Scarf Girl, a memoir of the cultural revolution: Historical Context

Habibeh Marron

Historical Context

Red Scarf Girl

By Jiang Ji-Li

How did historical events influence the ideas in the novel? What cultural issues may have influenced, challenged, or inspired the author?

This is not “any“ Revolution

Come, come and grab your paper just $4.99! read what everyone is reading! the Chinese Cultural Revolution!

“Destroying the Four Olds was a new battle, and an important one: It would keep China from losing her Communist ideals. Though we were not facing real guns or real tanks, this battle would be even harder, because our enemies, the rotten ideas and customs we were so used to, were inside ourselves” (Jiang 28–29).

The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was a socio-political movement mainly supported by Mao Zedong the Chairman (Wikipedia). Red Scarf Girl by Jiang Ji´Li is a novel that explores the main conflicts of a twelve-year-old girl who experience the Cultural Revolution in all ways possibly. Our main character is now dealing with a new concept that means leaving her physical and psychological belongings behind, her childhood and everything she treasures is now breaking apart. Some of the basic laws that Ji´Li and her family faced during this time period were:

1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

4. Confiscation of the property

5. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state (LibertyZone).

Another main conflict the modifies our author´s perspective are the da-zi-bao´s that are written in school as part of the proletarian revolution, these seem to criticize every performance of “four olds“ (ShangaiPropagandaArt).

This masterpiece is the winner of books for Young Adults, 1998 Parents' Choice Gold Award, 1998 Books of Distinction, and many more. For Jiang Ji-li, the Revolution didn´t end until she was 22, therefore it had a great impact on her childhood. In summary Red Scarf Girl is a novel that shows how changes might affect someone´s life so much, though times will always get better.