Sunday, April 24, 2016

Opinions On The Red Scarf Girl

One of the many years I'm glad I wasn't alive in is 1966, the time of the Cultural Revolution because of what bad things happen in a book called "The Red Scarf Girl". Which is focused on a girl named Ji-Li Jiang, (with a similar childhood to my Mom's) who believed she was one of the luckiest people alive, at least until 1966. She wanted to be a "red guard" despite her family background/status, which at that time, was called "black family", usually a family with at least one relative who was something like a landlord. As the story goes on, life becomes much harder for Ji-Li. First, her parents and grandmother forbid her from joining the liberation army (black family stuff again), her grandfather was a landlord. And then some time later, people start tearing down things they call "four olds", take foreign objects, that would be considered four olds. Unfortunately for Ji-Li, her family owns a LOT of four olds and need to find ways to get rid of them, that eventually causing a bigger problem. Red guards occasionally search people's houses, mostly black families and will take away any four olds. Them being very unlucky, because a bunch of red guards, led by a freak named 6-fingers, who quite literally has six fingers, find a knife in a trash can along with one of the incompletely burnt picture of their fourth aunt. As a result, they think the weapon is associated with their aunt and then raid their house in search of other weapons and some four olds. Thus, taking away much of their treasures. Eventually, in fear of also being searched, Ji-Li and her siblings' friends' relatives start committing suicide. In fact, there was a   part in the story where both her brother and sister were called "black whelps", just some other insult. If you thought things couldn't get much worse, then I'm sorry, but you are wrong. The Jiangs get accused of abusing farmers in the past. And then Ji-Li's father is accused of listening to foreign radio broadcasts and forced to do all sorts of mindless labor in the theatre he usually works at. What's worse, their mother is accused of hiding a letter to some sort of municipal party and then their house is searched AGAIN. If their cat didn't get up from his litter box, then maybe their luck could've changed, but still, all furniture is confiscated.  Ji li cannot be a red guard at school because of her class status. That is because she had a ****** grand father. Her house was ransacked 2 TIMES!!!!! She had horrible neighbors too. One of the worst ones was 6 fingers and thin face.                                                  
In conclusion, living in China in 1966 would've been suicide, which is why I'm glad I don't have to worry about what Ji-Li had to worry about almost every day.  
                                                                                                             
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                          

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