We should have had our March meeting at a Chinese restaurant, focusing as we did on Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, with side dishes of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan -- all set in China. We spent some time piecing together what little each of us knew about Chinese history, trying to place the books in a time frame.
If you're interested, here's the Wikipedia entry for ancient Chinese history; and here's one about a book written in 18 BC about exemplary Chinese women. (Bear in mind, the title of the book is taken from a neo-Confucianist word used to mean "woman who commits suicide after her husband's death rather than remarry; woman who dies defending her honor.") For the history of modern mainland China, see History of the People's Republic of China.
Glancing through the ancient history entry, I see that the Cultural Revolution wasn't the only tyrannical period in China's history: "An estimated 25 million people died during the Manchu conquest of the Ming Dynasty (1616-1644). . . . The Manchus enforced a 'queue order' forcing the Han Chinese to adopt the Manchu queue hairstyle and Manchu-style clothing. . . . The penalty for not complying was death." Yikes!
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is set about a thousand years ago, if I remember correctly from the discussion (not having read it myself). Of the three books, it has the most to say about the condition of women, and horrifies with its description of foot-binding. There's also the intrigue of a secret language for women. Be sure to read Page Turner's post below, with a reference to a review of this book on her blog. (We were very glad to see her at this meeting, coming all the way from the far reaches of Indiana!)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a coming-of-age book about two young men, but there is a significant young woman in the story -- a peasant girl. The young men have been sent to the countryside for re-education, their parents being on the wrong side of the Revolution. They come upon a treasure chest of Western novels, which they devour in their spare time off from grueling labor. The books act almost as a drug on the two teens; they can't get enough. The little seamstress, too, is overpowered as the boys read to her. Ironically, what makes peasant life bearable for them makes it unbearable for her.
The Red Scarf Girl depicts life for a 12-year-old girl as the Cultural Revolution unfolds. An excellent student with high hopes, her patriotism is challenged when she learns her family is also on the wrong side of the Revolution. She's puzzled, frightened, angered, and anguished when her hopes are dashed. As in Life and Death in Shanghai (by Nien Cheng), the rules gradually change and the pressure mounts. Who will be next to be singled out? Will the family's past be discovered? Should Ji-Li head off trouble for herself by renouncing her family?
I found frightening parallels between the mob behavior in Red Scarf Girl with this past week's news about the AIG bonuses. When a news report said that President Obama was "denouncing" the executives, and a US Senator said they should "retire or commit suicide," I had a shock of recognition. "Oh," I thought, "This outrage that I feel over the abuse of my tax dollars by a 'state-owned' company is what the Chinese felt over the abuses of feudal landlords." But the reaction, then as now, goes over the top. As Ji Li Jaing says, the lack of a good legal system is dangerous. She attributes the abuses of the Cultural Revolution to that lack. Without laws in place to prevent abuse and punish abusers, the mob will rule. (See this cartoon for a reference to our own Salem witch trials, and this article on Barney Frank as Madame Defarge.)
I know I haven't done justice to our discussion. I beg the rest of you to chime in.
4 comments:
Just a minor correction - the setting of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is only 100 years before the cultural revolution, not 1,000. ( :
I had a great time discussing these books. China's history is really fascinating. Please stop by my blog and read my reviews ~ http://linesfromthepage.blogspot.com/
I'm really looking forward to the Bronte Sisters in April!
A hundred, a thousand . . . a billion, a trillion. :)
In Red Scarf Girl love for Chairman Mao sought to trump love for family; individuals were lost to the general populace; personal thought was trampled by political ideology; ultimately, the country and culture was for one man, Mao. This is eastern thought gone wild - communism at its worst.
While Red Scarf Girl shows the struggle within, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress juxtaposes eastern and western thought in a head-on collision.
In Balzac, the introduction of western thought through their discover of literary works opens the minds of the main characters, for good and ill. Mid-way through the book the narrator relates, "Jean-Christophe [by author Romain Rollan], with his fierce individualism utterly untainted by malice, was a salutary revelation. Without him I would never have understood the splendour of taking free and independent action as an individual. Up until this stolen encounter with Romain Rolland's hero, my poor educated and re-educated abrains had been incapable of grasping the notion of one man standing up against the whole world." This narrator's chance to take "free and independent action," however, shows his weakness when he sadistically punishes a political official.
The narrator's friend, Luo, is influenced by western thought to unleash his sexual urgings and in attempting to civilize the seamstress to his liking, he ultimately loses her.
The seamstress is perhaps most radically affected by the introduction of western thought. Her moral choices are farther reaching and her new-found ideology leads her away from her home to an unknown future, full of potential dangers.
Both of these books are a good read, Red Scarf Girl (written for young readers) being a well-written introduction to the Cultural Revolution, Balzac depicting more mature themes.
Wordsmith ~ you really put a lot more thought into evaluating Balzac than I did. I really appreciate that you wrote out your thoughts and insights. It has so much more depth than my gut-feeling reaction. ( :
Post a Comment