Upload
south-island-school
View
1.539
Download
3
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
The Context of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Saloni Dattani
Communism
• Ideals:– A free society
– Elimination of property
– Universalism
– Last stage of society
– Redistribution of hierarchy
• Our impression of it from the novel:– ‘did a lot to temper our resentment towards the former opium growers who, now that
they had been converted into ‘poor peasants’ by the Communist regime, were in charge of our re-education.’ [15]
– ‘Millions of young people had gone before us, and millions would follow.’ [7]
– ‘banished…to the countryside’ [6]
– ‘I noticed three blood spots in his left eye’ [3]
Chairman Mao and the Little Red Book
• What we know of him:– A revolutionary Communist leader
– His social-political programs are widely blamed for famines
– He depended on Chinese peasants
• What we know of the Little Red Book:– An unofficial requirement
– A collection of quotations
• Our impression of him and the book from the novel:– ‘the Great Helsman of China’s Revolution, Chairman Mao,’ [6]
– ‘ a great revolutionary dreamer, wishing to create a new generation’ [6]
– ‘a Tibetan song, which the Chinese had reworded so as to turn it into a glorification of Chairman Mao.’ [17]
Rural China
• Programs enforced:– Village elites were overthrown
– Labels put on families
– Redistribution of income
– Building of communes
• What we know of Rural China from the novel:– The boys were forced to carry buckets of ‘a mixture of excrement and water’ [14]
– ‘the coals [were] burning in a hearth that was hollowed out of the floor’ [3]
– ‘Just about everyone in the village had come to the house on stilts way up on the mountain to witness the arrival of city youths’ [3]
The Cultural Revolution
• Causes:– Criticizing intellectualism
• Events:– Red Guards and the Revolutionary committee
– Beating traitors
– Moving to economic fields
– The Revolutionary committee
– Lin trying to assassinate Mao
– Deng Xiaoping
– Tiananment Incident
• What we know of it from the novel:– ‘launched a campaign that would leave the country profoundly altered.’ [6]
– ‘Was it a ploy to get rid of the Red Guards?’ [6]
– ‘had … to wait for the Cultural Revolution to calm down before the school reopened’ [7]
– ‘Written on the slab were his name and his crime: REACTIONARY.’ [9]
Re-education
• Events:– Government and values of the Cultural Revolution in schools
– Sending of graduates to the countryside
– High-schools closing
• What we know of it from the novel:– ‘banished the entire population … to the countryside’ [6]
– ‘It was hard to see how the two of us could possibly qualify as intellectuals.’ [7]
– ‘All other books were forbidden’ [8]
– ‘Throughout the years of our re-education the house on stilts remained almost entirely unfurnished.’ [13]