Chairman Mao, Guilhermo Pagnano Gonzalez

While reading the Red Scarf Girl by Ji Li Jang I have had a very disturbing question about a character depicted in the book as Chairman Mao. While reading and investigating the story I have learned and read some very ineteresting meager exoctic stories about the whatsoever prestigious leader; for instance, "Chairman Mao, had risked his life to go to mines of Anyuan by himself to establish a revolutionary base there." (pg.101) After having read this, and many other stories about the adaoucios Chairman Mao I decided to in a quest of examination about Chairman Mao's history background and life.

Born on December 26, 1893, in Shaoshan, Hunan Province, China, Mao Tse-tung served as chairman of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1959, and led the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 until his death. Mao's "Great Leap Forward" and the Cultural Revolution were outrageous and had disastrous consequences, but many of his goals, including stressing China's self-reliance, were generally admirable.

Mao was born into a peasant family in central China. After training as a teacher, he travelled to Beijing where he worked in the University Library. It was during this time that he began to read Marxist literature. In 1921, he became a founder member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and set up a subsidiary in Hunan. In 1923, the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party had allied with the Chinese Communists to defeat the warlords who controlled much of northern China. Then in 1927, the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek launched an anti-communist purge. Mao and his allies retreated after being surrounded by the KMT's to southeast China, where he eventually regrouped with many participants and followers to establish a new base. With so many disciples he made himself back to the north to establish roots and power

In 1958, in an attempt to create a more 'Chinese' form of communism, Mao launched the 'Great Leap Forward'. This was directed at mass mobilisation of labour to improve agricultural and industrial production. The result, instead, was a massive decline in agricultural output, which, together with poor harvests, led to famine and the deaths of millions. The policy was left aside and Mao's position weakened.

In an attempt to re ensure and prove his authority, Mao launched the 'Cultural Revolution' in 1966, aiming to suppress the country of 'impure' elements and revive the revolutionary spirit. As we have read, there was in intellectual attack of the four olds, old heritage, culture ,etc . One-and-a-half million people died and much of the country's cultural heritage was destroyed.

Chairman Mao with his believers and followers making themselves back to the north of china to reconquer the land KMT toke from them.

Chairman Mao poster that shows his power and act of force in the society.

Line Illuminator- Brantley Wren

Red Scarf Girl
Ji-Li Jiang
Line Illuminator
Chapters 13-Epilogue


"The letter complained about the situation in the theater. The faction in power, the Rebels, did whatever they wanted, ignoring the policy directives from the Central Committee of the Party, the letter said. They treated people with nonpolitical problems, like Aunt Wu, as class enemies, and they had humiliated her, shaving half of her head in a yin-yang hairdo. They frequently beat their prisoners and had already beaten two to death. They even recorded the screams and moans of the prisoners being tortured, and played the tapes to frighten other prisoners under interrogation."

This passage is greatly important in this book because it tells of the horrors that went on in China that Ji-Li's mother knew about but horrors that Ji-Li was oblivious to until now.

"After a long while the young man went into the bathroom. No one else was watching us. Mom whispered in my ear, "Where's the letter?" "In Little White's litter box. Are you going to tell them?" Mom shook her head hesitantly. She looked at Grandma and murmured, "I'm afraid she can't stand any more. It looks like they won't give up till they find it.""

This paragraph is important to the story because it creates suspense and anxiety about what is going to happen next. Will ThinFace find the letter? Will Ji-Li's family be punished? There's no way of knowing unless you keep reading.

Risk Taking Researcher - Tobin Min

Red Scarf Girl
Ji-li Jiang
Risk Taking Researcher
Chapter 13-15

The Red Scarf Girl is a novel based on the cultural revolution. The key person that is always mentioned in the book is "Chairman Mao" or "Mao Zedong." So the things that I am going to research about are those two things.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a political-movement that took place in China from 1966 to 1976. The idea was set by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China and that time period. There were two main things that he wanted to achieve from this movement which are: Imposing Maoists in the party, and to enforce communism by removing capitalists, traditional and cultural elements of China. The movement was not a success, and impacted the country's politically, economically, and socially. In 1966, Mao insisted that the revisionists had to be removed because they were supposedly trying to restore capitalism. So to do this, youths formed Red Guard groups, and many senior officers were killed. And in the same time, Mao's personality Cult grew bigger. Many people suffered abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. After the death of the military leader, Lin Biao, the active phase ended. However, the real endpoint was when the Gang of Four got arrested, and reformers led by Deng Xiaoping ended the Maoist reforms.

Link

The most important person in this movement was Mao Zedong, the former Chairman of the Communist Party. He was a Chinese Communist and the founder of the People's Republic of China. He is from a wealthy family in Hunan. Mao adopted a Chinese Nationalists outlook in early life because of the many events that took place at that time. In 1949, he found PRC, which was controlled by the communist party. In 1966, he launched the Cultural Revolution. He is considered as both a great leader, and a dictator. Mao died on 9 September 1976.

Link

Citations: 

BBC. "Mao Zedong." BBC News. BBC, 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.

"Mao Tse-tung." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 24 Sep. 2014.

History. "Cultural Revolution." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.

"The Cultural Revolution". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2005. Web.

Job #4 Illustrious Artist - Tobin Min

Red Scarf Girl

Chapters 10-12

Source

I chose this image to represent the book. This image is about a town where almost nobody, or nobody lives, a.k.a ghost town. I thought this picture was meaningful because in the Chinese New Year, the town that Ji-Li Jiang was living in looked and felt like a ghost town because nobody celebrated this major event. In the Chinese New Year celebration in China, all the members of each of their family comes together, trade gifts, and then celebrate by talking and etc. However, this year, everything that people did before were considered as one of the four-olds.

Question Commander Week 3

Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang

Chapter 6-9

1. Do other nations know the incident happening in China? If they do, why do they not help them?

For this, maybe, other nations knew this problem. However, it was very unlikely that any would help if we understand the time period. The event happened in 1966, about 13 years after the Korean War, where the US and the UN forces, and China with Russia divided Korea into two countries after their fight. So the US and China aren't BFF's. So, the countries wouldn't help China when China is in danger.

Source

2. Why is the color red used in many thing in China?

In my opinion, I think red is used in many things because it represents many things. First of all, I think it represents blood and bravery. China had a revolution and has a humungus army. Secondly, red in China means good luck. So for the good luck of the Chinese, I think they use red.

Source

3. If Ji-li sees violence and torture, why does she continue to support the revolution?

This question is interesting because there may be many possible answers. However, I think there are only two strong reasons. First reason is that she might be "brainwashed." Even if someone thinks and knows that something is wrong, if everyone around him or her does that, she might think it is right, and she was wrong. This happens everywhere, in schools, houses, and anywhere where many people are sharing their opinions. For example, some students think that homework is very useful in both improving his skills and for teachers to check the students' skills. However, if everyone around him influences him by saying and showing why they think homework is bad and useless, then he might change his opinion to fit in the opinion of his friends. The second one is very unlikely, but she might be "enjoying" it. Some psychopaths or sociopath doesn't feel emotion or enjoys watching someone else suffer. However, I won't go in detail, since this is very unlikely.

Source

Job #2 - Word Whisperer - To Hong Min

Red Scarf Girl: Chapter 3-5

Simile: "Long ropes strung cross the playground were covered with still more da-zi-bao, looking like laundry hung out to dry." I think this means that the students wrote and hung too much "da-zi-bao's" that it looks like a massive amount of laundry in the sun, prepared to be dried.

Personification: "The characters danced before my eyes, growing larger and redder, almost swallowing me up." I think this shows the shock Ji-li felt at time. I think this shows how dizzy and confused she felt that that outrageous statement.

Rhetorical Question: "Did the teachers really intend to ruin our health and corrupt our minds?" I think thus question shows how Ji-li is confused with the current situation in the book, where the students are criticizing the teachers for everything. Personally, I do not think that the fault in the students' skills are not the teacher's fault, but apparently, the others do not think so.

Foreshadowing: "“Alone in the corner of the school yard I saw a little wildflower. She had six delicate petals, each as big as the nail of my little finger. They were white at the center and shaded blue at the edges. She was as lonely as I was. I did not know her name. Softly I stroked her petals, thinking that I would take care of her, as I wished someone would take care of me." I think this tells me how something will happen to Ji-li in the future. Something that will cure her from her "depression."

Source

Source

Risk Taking Researcher

The Red Scarf Girl

Ji-Li Jiang

Chapters 3-5

Throughout the the first five chapters, I have already come to love the book. It is very interesting, because last year in humanities, we read Ties That Bind, Ties That Break. Both books were based around a similar time period, and as I am reading I can connect parts of the text to the other book. 

The book Red Scarf Girl was based during the Cultural Revolution. This connects greatly to the part I just read, because all of the important events happening to Ji-Li Jiang are related to Chairman Mao. Ji-Li's family is considered a "Black Family", because her grandfather was a landlord, and that is horrible for her, because he exploited people. Adding on, there are rumours that her dad is a rightist. Chairman Mao changed many things in the country. For example, he decided that being a scholar wasn't as important as being a Red Guard. There were no classes for many days, because Mao claimed that teachers taught like people did in the older days. Almost all of the students made a "da zi bao" about their teachers and the way they taught. Since Ji-Li was a good student, and liked all of her teachers, she had nothing bad to say about them. Therefore, she was persecuted by her fellow classmates that thought she didn't agree with Mao.

The time period of the book largely impacted Ji-Li, because she was part of a "Black Family". If she was born after the Cultural Revolution, she would have never had problems at school, and she probably would've gotten into the elite school she wanted, Shi-yi. Many of her dreams were crushed because of all the new changes happening throughout the country. She even wished that she was never born, because The Red Successors often brought up the fact that her grandfather was a landlord, and it influenced her greatly, even though she never met him. I think that if Chairman Mao never lead China, Ji-Li would have probably had a much easier and calmer childhood.

• Sources

Info

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji-li_Jiang

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scarf_Girl

http://rosemueller0481.hubpages.com/hub/Mao-China

Images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_(China)

http://www.tempi.it/blog/cina-rivoluzione-culturale-rumors-internet-mao-dazibao-xue

Job #5 - Illustrator - Guilherme Z.

I chose to do a drawing of the Chinese Liberation Army symbol because it its one of the main and crucial elements of the story until now. Even though I am sure that it will be a strong element of the entire story. Also because that is the first small conflict that came up because of an idea about the liberation army. Ji-Li-Jiang wanted to make an audition for the Liberation Army Arts Academy, but her father didn't allow her. She was really confused because of her father's decision but then he said that if she made the audition her entire family had to pass through an "interview". They had to investigate the whole family political background. And her father did have some concerns about that. And if they didn't pass the "test"he was afraid that the people would discover about his problems and that it could bring shame for him and his family.