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duffypratt 's review for:
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
by Ji-li Jiang
A young adult memoir about growing up in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. In many ways, her background was similar to my wife's, so from this standpoint it was quite interesting.
One step at a time, opportunities, luxuries, friendships, and even family relationships are stripped from her. It's done in the name of advancing the revolutionary spirit. While this is happening, she sometimes questions the authority and motives of the people implementing the policies. But she never thinks to question the policies themselves, or their source in Mao.
The great irony in the policies is that the idea is to eliminate the "four olds." These are old, pre-revolutionary ways of thinking and behaving. But the biggest sign of guilt for the Red Guard is that someone's ancestor was a landlord. That's the black sin that taints the narrator's family. And what is more a sign of old thinking than the idea that a person is defined by his/her ancestry?
The writing is a bit overly simple, as the book seems deliberately aimed at a YA audience. This is too bad. I don't mind the simplicity, but I don't like it when I get the impression that things have been deliberately been dumbed down. It takes a special writer to put together a children's book that appeals to adults, and this one doesn't quite hit the mark. Having said that, it was an interesting book to read, and I'm by no means sorry that I did.
One step at a time, opportunities, luxuries, friendships, and even family relationships are stripped from her. It's done in the name of advancing the revolutionary spirit. While this is happening, she sometimes questions the authority and motives of the people implementing the policies. But she never thinks to question the policies themselves, or their source in Mao.
The great irony in the policies is that the idea is to eliminate the "four olds." These are old, pre-revolutionary ways of thinking and behaving. But the biggest sign of guilt for the Red Guard is that someone's ancestor was a landlord. That's the black sin that taints the narrator's family. And what is more a sign of old thinking than the idea that a person is defined by his/her ancestry?
The writing is a bit overly simple, as the book seems deliberately aimed at a YA audience. This is too bad. I don't mind the simplicity, but I don't like it when I get the impression that things have been deliberately been dumbed down. It takes a special writer to put together a children's book that appeals to adults, and this one doesn't quite hit the mark. Having said that, it was an interesting book to read, and I'm by no means sorry that I did.