Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution

Eye opening story! I feel like we are living through a cultural revolution right now, destroying history, shaming people, and judging others on politics, not merit.

Such a great book and audiobook! It's a fantastic read that is accessible for preteens, but also revealing for adults of any age.

Red Scarf Girl is a compelling recount of a Chinese child's life during the Cultural Revolution. Author Ji-li Jiang skillfully details a time in her youth that should have been filled with wonder and excitement for a young girl, but instead was overwhelmed with anguish and suffering due to the illogical madness that was the Cultural Revolution.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Ji-li Jiang wove together her story to take me back in time and convey her bitter helplessness as she struggled to make sense of the world around her.

I own a hardcopy of this book, and it's a keeper...one that will remain on the shelf to be read every few years. The audiobook is well done also. Good choice of narrator.

Not going to lie. I hate most books I am required to read for school. This one is different. This one does not waste your time or sound like a wordy mess. It simply tells of the horrors of communism and how people can be manipulated by fear or by false hope into pledging all of their support into a dictator.

This book is my favorite historical memoir.

It is a very good book talking about the experiences of Ji li Jang childhood during the cultural revolution.

Excellent insight and chilling to see the parallels starting in the US. Struggle sessions are already happening.

This was a very good read. That Jiang Ji-li presented the story of her struggles with a childlike innocence and honesty made this tale even more heart-breaking. It's mind-boggling how so many people could be so brainwashed and do so much damage to others. I really didn't know anything about China's cultural revolution until I read this book, but now I want to learn more.

A RECAP OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION OF CHINA

Chairman Mao Zedong's Five-Year Plan and Great Leap Forward were economic and social failures, causing massive starvation; it is estimated that between 22-55 million died. Rightly, Mao was removed from national leadership, although he still led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, he was getting older and coveted a way to regain power. Therefore, in 1966, he instigated a rebellion against the political administration, claiming there were "bourgeoisie" inside the government. Bourgeoisie was code word for foreign capitalist or capitalist sympathizer.

Mao mobilized the youth through the CCP (just like George Soros does through certain political parties) to challenge the establishment and purge capitalist "influencers or sympathizers" of the state or those who "exploited the lower classes" (like landlords or anyone wealthy). The youth, or students, were perfect pawns because Mao knew they were impressionable (which means they knew nothing and would believe anything) and that if he did not "remold" them first, then the enemy could just as well have influenced them.

These youth were called the Red Guards, and the state police were instructed to protect them while they entered private homes and terrorized anyone whom they believed did not comply with the CCP. (Sadly, young people tend to be more than eager to lash out because their hearts are ripe with rebellion.)

The Red Guards evicted families, ransacked homes, and confiscated personal belongings (which is another name for theft). They made examples of people through public humiliation, beat some to death, and caused others to commit suicide out of shame. Even beloved teachers and principals were targeted. Schools were closed and 16 million young people were sent to the country to do hard labor and be reeducated to remove old ideas. Churches and other symbols of Chinese heritage were destroyed and Imperial history was rewritten and replaced with Mao-centered history. (How dull!)

This sad period, the Cultural Revolution, continued for ten years, until Mao's death in 1976. Besides enabling Mao to squeeze his way back into power, another object of the Cultural Revolution was to destroy culture reminiscent of pre-communist China. It was a rebellion against the Four Olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits or traditions. What these "Olds" represented was vague; therefore, Red Guards were permitted to roam the streets terrorizing others at their own whim. By the end of the Cultural Revolution, it is estimated that 8 million more Chinese were dead.

ABOUT RED SCARF GIRL, JI-LI JIANG

Red Scarf Girl takes place during the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Ji-Li Jiang was 12-years old, in 1966, and had a promising future ahead of her. She was bright and well-liked by her teachers and peers. She loved her family, especially her grandma who lived with them, and their housekeeper, who was like a family member.

Ji-Li was excited to do the work Chairman Mao was influencing young people to do -- to root out the Four Olds. She was "certain that [she and her peers] were bringing a new life to China." She "felt [she] was already a Liberation Army soldier who was ready to go out for battle."

But life in China was quickly changing, and it was going to get worse. Ji-Li learned that her family was considered a "black family" because they employed a housekeeper, which was exploitive, and her grandfather had been a landlord while he had been alive. They were labeled capitalist.

Change was so frequent that Ji-Li lived in continuous fear and apprehension.

One day, Ji-Li's father was detained for three months, accused of listening to foreign radio. He was a man of integrity and would never confess to something that was not true. The entire family was targeted and publicly shamed as a "big landlord family." Ji-Li was angry that fate caused her to be born into this family. She thought she could distance herself and overcome her background, through communist activities and hard labor, but she could not wash the stain away, no matter what she did.

Instead, she learned something about herself. During her father's detainment, Ji-Li was pressured to disown her parents. But she would not. She learned that all of her actions had proven to herself that she would always be loyal to her family first, even over her political ambitions.
My family was too precious to forget, and too rare to replace.
Once my life had been defined by my goals: to be a da-dui-zhang, to participate in the exhibition, to be a Red Guard. They seemed unimportant to me now. Now my life was defined by my responsibilities. I had promised to take care of my family, and I would renew that promise every day. I could not give up or withdraw, no matter how hard life became.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS

If you are like me and did not know anything about the Cultural Revolution (CR), this is an exceptional primary source, easy to digest, and eye-opening. I was dumbfounded by what Ji-Li and her family had lived through. I already know communist totalitarians are horrible people when they get hold of absolute power, but this takes it to a new level. Ji-Li witnessed horror and lived through terror, and her family status held her and her siblings back until after the CR was over.

In her Epilogue, she admitted that they were all brainwashed. "Mao was a god. He controlled everything..." She said that after his death in 1976, people woke up. The CR was "a power struggle at the highest levels of the Party." Mao took advantage of the people's trust "to manipulate the whole country." Ji-Li said that "the most frightening lesson of the CR: Without a sound legal system, a small group or even a single person can take control of an entire country. This is as true now as it was then."

I would add that in the United States, if it were not for our Constitution, we would be further along in the abyss than we already are. I mean, we are getting there, but it is a challenge because of our Founding Document, which some would like to burn because it is an obstacle to absolute power. Everything is a power struggle. It is always about greedy power.

* * *

This was a really sad book for me, the author who is just a few years older then me, had to go through this while I grew up obliviously on the other side of the world watching Star Trek on TV and going to summer camp. The 13 year old girl was sent to a farm commune and worked close to death.


The best part is the uplifting ending and the author's determination to try to improve things for the country she still loves.

An absolute must read. A candid account of a child who lived through the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Never say it can't happen here... it can.

I wore the “pañoleta roja” as a symbol of socialism/communism as a child in Cuba - definitely a mix bag of good and bad memories!

I remember having to be careful about what information I shared because it could negatively impact my family...reading this book from a child’s perspective (granted, her experience was much worse but still very relatable) as a teenager felt both cathartic and validating! Re-reading it as an adult was still a good experience.

I couldn't help but think of how so many of these experiences could be so similar for individuals with such different cultures in different parts of the world!

This memoir is part of the 7th grade Language Arts curriculum at my son's middle school. He found it very interesting (his description was "it's kind of like [book:Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood|9516]", and he's right).

Ji-li Jiang was 12 years old when the Cultural Revolution began. She went from being a tar pupil and happy kid to being rejected due to her "black status"--relating to her 30-years-deceased grandfather's long ago status as a landlord. A family history she knew nothing about. Her experiences during the cultural revolution taught her a lot about family, love, greed, kindness, strength, and integrity. She and her family now live in the United States.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

The Cultural Revolution in China brought vague images of giant posters of Mao and city people shipped to farms to labor. Jiang Ji-li puts a real face and heart to events that Americans can hardly imagine. This story of her life and the daily suffering of her family branded as black landlords (due to actions of a grandfather 30 years dead), is a shocking reminder of what happens when political beliefs, power and ideology rule over basic kindness and common sense. Important work that should be read by anyone wanting to understand China and the dangers of setting class against class.

Jiang Ji-li was born on Chinese New Year. Her name Ji-li means lucky and beautiful. She was twelve when the Cultural Revolution started. A promising student and quite a fan of Mao at first joins her classmates in denouncing the Four Olds (“old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits”), but soon discovers that her family’s class status (her grandfather was a landlord) places her under the scrutiny of her relatives, neighbors and classmates. Their house is subject to searches, they burn old photos, hide or disguise ‘bourgeois’ belongings, her father is taken in for questioning, and Ji-Li watches as her bright future dims.

For me, the most appalling moment was when her father’s work unit comrades question Ji-Li at school, telling the teenager to choose between two paths:

“You can break with your family and follow Chairman Mao, or you can follow your father and become an enemy of the people.”

I can’t imagine having to live a life like this, full of worries – and not just your usual teenaged worries, but worrying about your parents and grandmother and siblings, about all kinds of things:

“I not only needed to manage our limited incomes and take care of Mom’s bad healthy, I had to bear the stares and the gossiping of our neighbours and attend the study sessions at school. But these were not my biggest worries. The worry of tomorrow haunted me constantly. I worried that Grandma would be sent to the countryside, as other landlords had been, and would be punished by the farmers there. I worried that Mom would be detained for attempting to help Dad. I worried that Dad would be beaten to death for his stubbornness. I worried that Ji-yong’s temper would get him in trouble, and that Ji-yun would be so frightened that she would never laugh again. Worst of all, I worried that by not hiding the letter well enough, I had ruined our lives forever.”

What a sad story this Red Scarf Girl is. What a terrifying experience for such a young girl to go through

Originally posted on my blog Olduvai Reads

Ji-Li Jiang's memoir of her young girl year during the Cultural Revolution is riveting, horrifying, deeply moving account. At the end of her elementary school days, Ji-Li was the girl most likely to succeed, star student, martial art performer, and student body leader. Before the school year is out Mao's Cultural Revolution takes hold upturning her world and home. Her star status as a student is held against her by young revolutionaries. Her family background as former landlords leads to the family's descent into a political hell.

Written in a spare style, Jiang captures her emotional struggle to be loyal to her family while still trying to prove herself do be an "educable child" despite her family's "black" status in a way that will touch young readers. As a tender hearted child Ji-Li also struggles to balance her own revolutionary zeal with her horror of the persecution of her neighbors. A few years ago I had a 12 year old student who never read anything but Manga, rarely did her work, and had a litany of discipline issues. She was just too cool for school. I suppose I should add she happened to be one of my favorites despite all that. I spent half a year trying to keep out of trouble and the other half cheering her on as she began to pull herself up to star student status herself. That year Ji-Li came to our school to speak to the 7th graders. My student was so excited; she had a list of questions. At the end of Jiang's presentations she stood up, tears in her eyes, and called out, "I love you Ji-Li Jiang! Peace!" My girl seems to have read at least book before, and Jiang's book was that one. Little Miss Cool was so touched by the book she had actually read it several times. Now that I have read it myself I understand my student's response entirely. I too love Ji-Li. Still love that kid too even though she was a major pain for most of the year.

Compelling story of what childhood was like during the Communist Revolution.

Red Scarf Girl is the memoir of young a young girl living during the Cultural Revolution, her name is Ji-Li Jiang. At the start, Ji-Li was the top student in her class who encouraged anything having to do with the current revolution. As the story progresses, Ji-Li struggles with her class status because her grandfather was once a landlord. Because of her current 'black' class status, Ji-Li is forced to lose many opportunities in the community. As the Cultural Revolution progresses, Ji-Li and her family encounters many abuses towards them because of their class standing. Now Ji-Li finally has the chance to become socially accepted by becoming an educable child, but at the cost of abandoning her family for the rest of her life. This memoir of a 12 year old girl having to deal with her internal conflict in the Cultural Revolution is an amazing read for anyone curious about the conditions of communist China in the mid 1900s. 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Would recommend to any World History student.

I never read or did any study of China's 20th century history so when I picked up this book to read I did not know what to expect. The book is a memoir written about Jiang's life during the China's Cultural Revolution, in which Mao Zedong created. The story is anything but pleasant. I was sad and scared for Jiang and her family as I read the book. I really appreciated what what Jiang wrote because she did an amazing job of telling a part of China's history in an easy and understandable way, which most other history books have trouble doing. This book is a must read for those who are interested in or for those who don't know anything about China's history.

I finished it in a day. It's a brilliant book. I love how the author shows just how much the people inside the system didn't understand it. The children are oblivious, blindly crossing each other to do what they think is right. They are told that the government is doing the right thing. Up until about halfway through the book, the main protagonist has no doubt that the government was doing what was right for everyone. Great read.

A "must read" for everyone!

In a true account written 30 years after it took place Ms. Jiang did an outstanding job of creating her voice as a child. It was very simply written but very, very effective at conveying the confusion, stress and fear of a child trying to reconcile the beliefs with which she's been thoroughly indoctrinated by a government in complete control with what she's witnessing around her and what's happening to her family and herself.

The ending caught me off guard but I can understand why she may have chose to end the story at that point and the epilogue answered some questions and briefly wrapped things up.

It was a very worthwhile read.

Engaging, plainly-written memoir of a young girl's life during the Chinese cultural revolution. While the writing is simple, the story is a good one and Ji-Li's emotions are well told.

While geared for YA readers (and I highly recommend this biography), Jiang's book is a harsher book compared to some of the other's I've read. Jiang's family is considered a 'black' family (against the CCP) and she suffers the consequences, even though she's not directly responsible for anything. She doesn't pull back from the hard life she led, but nor does she shy away from talking about the good things (however few and far between they were). A good supplement to people interested in the Cultural Revolution and a great book for teens interested in China.

This autobiographical non-fiction book is a Ji-li Jiangs's historical account of life during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Because she was a wealthy girl she was criticized by the Red Guard for her family’s history. Not only does this book allow the reader to glimpse the world of Mao’s brainwashing, but it also documents Ji-li Jiang's personal struggles as temptations to denounce her family mounted in order to claim loyalty to her country.

This book can be a great tool to expand students' knowledge of life in the east. This little girl experiences intense emotions and makes difficult decisions. Allowing my students to explore this decision making process and weigh the different things that are important to them can shed light on their place in the world. This book becomes more than just an autobiography. It encourages a reader to want to know more. I personally kept asking myself, "Why do I not know more about this?" A book that can spark an interest in a subject that I once was completely ignorant about can surely have a place on my bookshelf.

I have never studied the Cultural Revolution of China, so this book was a huge surprise to me. The book starts with 12 year old Ji-li Jiang during the beginning of the revolution. She does well in school and is very popular, but when she is selected to audition for the Central Liberation Army Arts Academy, her parents forbid her, knowing their class will effect her acceptance. Her parents try and shield her from much of the goings on, but she is still ridiculed for her social class because her grandfather was a landlord. The rise of the Red Guards starts to make the book seem like it is telling the story of the Holocaust. The Red Guards come in and search her house. Her father is detained among false accusations. She soon finds that her mother is trying to expose the Red Guards in a letter she is writing. The Red Guards come and search the house again and find the letter. Her mother and grandmother are punished and she is forced to take on the responsibility of her family. In the end, her father is released and they eventually move to America where she realizes how truly terrible Communism is, although she still feels a connection to her old country. She later starts a business in the hopes to bridge the gap between the two countries. I really enjoyed this book as I did not know much about the cultural revolution. It was interesting to read that in the end she still felt loyalties to her country, even though they were treated so badly there. I think this would be an excellent book for any high school student to read as Ji-li is easy to relate to.

This book depicts two years in the life of a girl who begins as a dedicated revolutionary, and not until the end of this story does she become disillusioned with the revolutionary fervor sweeping China during the Cultural Revolution. This book is full of those intimate details of life during a tumultuous period of history such as how she has to get to market not only early but she must get in the fastest lines, and have others saving her spot in others. all this just to get the vegetables for the day's cooking. Red Scarf Girl is an emotional book which will make the reader love this girl, Ji Li, and hate the Red Guard and its many incarnations over the two years we are with her. The Red Guard are shown to be bullies and little else. The logic used is also simplistic as is shown when the shops that Ji Li decide are Four Olds are all made to change their names and even one will change its name to the exact name they had made up as elementary school children that day. The writing is engaging, if not miserable at times. This book would be invaluable as an introduction to the Cultural Revolution for students from High School onward.

Red Scarf Girl was a dollar pickup at my local thrift store. I was intrigued at the context and historical value but was let down at the less-than-fairy-tale ending. In fact, it's really anti-climatic. What it amounts to is a huge sad buildup that never resolves. I can't honestly say that it's one of the best memoirs on the planet (as some would claim in some reviews) but it is historically relevant and appropriately aimed at young adults.

I have read several books about China's cultural revolution, and I wish I had found this book first. I loved that Jiang added a glossary at the back for words and phrases commonly used during that time. I felt she really wanted to bring understanding to the readers, and she did a wonderful heart felt job. You get a sense of that time, knowing that you could never fully understand unless you lived it too. I will be giving this book to my younger daughter to read soon, and hope it will be the starting point of a great love for all of the Asian culture-good and bad, and the strength of its people.

Last semester, I had my 9th graders read this book; a few enjoyed it and were interested in the Cultural Revolution. Ji-Li Jiang writes clearly and the book is moving; I've read better books about that time, but all in all, it gives a strong personal glimpse into that terrible time, and for that, and that alone, I would recommend it particularly for 9th to 12th graders.

Memoir of a young girl as she and her family live through the Cultural Revolution in China. Documents her struggle of who to trust - family or government. Text flows simply and beautifully. Includes: glossary.

I am similar to Ji Li, the main character of the book. I live in Shanghai and am about the same age. Personally, I think Red Scarf Girl is a book suitable for kids of all age, who are interested in learning about The Cultural Revolution.