Difference between revisions of "Red Scarf Girl SSR Project"

Revision as of 00:18, 12 October 2006

English 10 Red Scarf Girl SSR Project

(need to scan directions --Plaz 20:54, 9 October 2006 (EDT))

Vocab

• Glorious Cultural Revolution - page 1 and througout
• Communist Party - page 1 and througout
• Chairman Mao - page 1 and througout
• Young Pioneers - page 3 and througout first few chapters
• da-dui-zhang - page 9
• Zeno's Paradox - page 13
• salon (party) - page 16
• detrimentally - page 30
• da-zi-bao - page 39
• oleander -
• Meniere's disease - page 180 -
• yuan - page 84
• Qian-long period - page 249

Summary

Ji-Li Jang survived red China's Glorious Cultural Revolution; possibly Chairman Mao's biggest mistake. Ji-Li's world is turned upside down by insatiable quest by her peers to eradicate the four-olds from society. Old ideas, old customs, old culture, and old habits are holding back China from its strong socialist future. Pants with legs narrower than 9 inches were just cut off on the streets. Pointed shoes were considered taboo. The Good Fortune Photo Studio was too èlite; it was renamed the Proletarian Photo Studio. Profit making and capitalism were strictly forbidden. Ji-Li suffered because her grandpa was a landowner. Land owners were seen as exploiting of the lower class. Ji-Li lived a comfortable life in a mid-sized apartment. But now, any inequality in wealth must be removed. Ji-Li is forced to avoid her partially-affluent past. Ji-Li's father and mother fire their servant, burn their decorative clothes, and repaint their gold-leafed furniture. The Red Guards are on the patrol for rouge citizens who do not remold their ideologies and extinguish their former wealth.

Ironically, the student guard leading the way are no other then Ji-Li's peers. Those that did not do well at school, now discover their power as members of the Young Pioneers. Ji-Li a straight honor student must cope with the reversal of power. The students even rebel against the teachers, accusing them of poisoning their minds, and even corrupting a young revolutionary by buying them bread, when they did not have a meal. But when the students turn on Ji-Li, their former tutor, and accusing her of a relationship with a male teacher, Ji-Li fears for her personal safety.

No matter how hard Ji-Li tries to fit in, she can not escape her landlord grandparents. However, there is one thing she refuses to do. Her class wants her to break all ties with her family and become a new person. Ji-Li cares too much about her family to forbear her relationships with them, unlike some other students in her class. The town Ji-Li lives in is so overcome by their willingness to hunt counterrevolutionaries. Unfortunately, there are not very many, if any of them. Therefore they even goes as far as a trash man is arrested for accidentally tearing a picture of Chairman Mao while removing scrap papers.