Name:

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Unit GuideLisa Joye

IHS Literature and the Arts2019

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Table of Contents

Resources and Materials for Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Why are we reading Seamstress?

Guided Note-Taking Assignment

Background Article

Study Guide Questions

Letter 7Grading (149 pts)

20 points for Guided Note Taking Assignment79 points for Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Study Guide50 points for Letter 7

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Why are we reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress?

by Dai Sijie?

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a 1984 novel by Chinese born filmmaker and novelist Dai Sijie. Sijie has lived and worked in France since 1984. His first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, was an overnight sensation; it spent 23 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He has also written Mr. Muo’s Traveling Couch and Once on a Moonless Night.

Seamstress was originally written in French and then translated into English. Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. He grew up working in his fathers tailor shop. He himself became a skilled tailor. The Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history.

In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically acclaimed feature-length films: China, My

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Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.

Why are we reading it?

It is a semi- autobiographical novel based on Dai Sijie’s own experiences being reeducated.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is set during the time known as the Cultural Revolution in China. This historical event helped to supply the framework for many of the conflicts faced in the novel. The Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong began in 1966 and continued until the dictator's death ten years later. The Cultural Revolution in China was intended to stamp out the educated class and old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. In order to do this, hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals were sent to peasant villages for re-education, and within the years of 1968-1975, some twelve million youths were 'rusticated' or spent time in the country.

The novel deals with the strength of education and literature. It emphasizes the power of literature to free the mind.

The major themes of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress include friendship and lost innocence.

Dai delivers an important message: any system that fears knowledge and education, any system that closes the mind to

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moral and intellectual truth, is evil and will prove in the end to be impotent.

Reading and Writing Skills

Literary Analysis Historical Connections Learn about Banned Books Letter Writing

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress--Background ArticleGuided Note-Taking Assignment

Directions: Read the article detailing the important background information about the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Use this note-taking guide to record the most important information you learn from your article.

Important Notes, Details, and Information

1. Who was Chairman Mao Zedong? What kind of a leader was he? What was his vision for China?

2. What was the Chinese Cultural Revolution? How did it begin? What were the causes of it?

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3. Who were the Red Guards? What were their goals? What methods did they use to rebel? What was the Little Red Book?

4. What was daily life like for Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution? What freedoms were restricted? What new rules were enacted?

5. Why were intellectuals targeted during the Cultural Revolution? What methods were used to “re-educate” urban intellectuals?

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6. What happened to China after Chairman Mao’s death? How is the Cultural Revolution viewed today? How is China still affected by the Revolution today?

The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion

WRITTEN BY TOM PHILLIPS Beijing

THE GUARDIAN; Tuesday 10 May 2016Fifty years ago one of the bloodiest eras in Chinese history began, in which as

many as two million people died. But who started it and what was it for?

_________________________________________________________________

What was it and when did it begin?The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a decade-long period of

political and social chaos caused by Mao Zedong’s bid to use the Chinese masses

to reassert his control over the Communist party. Its bewildering complexity and

almost unfathomable brutality was such that to this day historians struggle to

make sense of everything that occurred during the period.

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However, Mao’s decision to launch the “revolution” in May 1966 is now

widely interpreted as an attempt to destroy his enemies by unleashing the people

on the party and urging them to purify its ranks. When the mass mobilization

kicked off party newspapers depicted it as an epochal struggle that would inject

new life into the socialist cause. “Like the red sun rising in the east, the

unprecedented Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is illuminating the land with

its brilliant rays,” one editorial read.

In fact, the Cultural Revolution crippled the economy, ruined millions of

lives and thrust China into 10 years of turmoil, bloodshed, hunger and stagnation.

Gangs of students and Red Guards attacked people wearing “bourgeois clothes”

on the street, “imperialist” signs were torn down and intellectuals and party

officials were murdered or driven to suicide. After violence had run its bloody

course, the country’s rulers conceded it had been a catastrophe that had brought

nothing but “grave disorder, damage and retrogression.” An official party

reckoning described it as a catastrophe which had caused “the most severe

setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the party, the country, and the people

since the founding of the People’s Republic” in 1949.

Whose idea was it and what was the aim?The Cultural Revolution was the brainchild of China’s ‘Great Helmsman’,

Chairman Mao Zedong. Seventeen years after his troops seized power, Mao saw

his latest political campaign as a way of reinvigorating the communist revolution

by strengthening ideology and weeding out opponents.

“Our objective is to struggle against and crush those persons in authority

who are taking the capitalist road... so as to facilitate the consolidation and

development of the socialist system,” one early directive stated. Frank Dikötter,

the author of a new book on China during this period, says Mao hoped his

movement would make China the pinnacle of the socialist universe and turn him

into “the man who leads planet Earth into communism.” But it was also an

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attempt by the elderly dictator, whose authority had been badly hit by the

calamitous Great Famine of the 1950s, to reassert control over the party by

obliterating enemies, real or imagined.

“It was a power struggle waged... behind the smokescreen of a fictitious

mass movement,” Belgian scholar Pierre Ryckmans wrote in his damning account

of the Cultural Revolution, The Chairman’s New Clothes.

How exactly did it start?Most historians agree the Cultural Revolution began in mid-May 1966 when

party chiefs in Beijing issued a document known as the “May 16 Notification”. It

warned that the party had been infiltrated by counter-revolutionary “revisionists”

who were plotting to create a “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”. A fortnight later,

on 1 June, the party’s official mouthpiece newspaper, urged the masses to “clear

away the evil habits of the old society” by launching an all-out assault on

“monsters and demons”. Chinese students sprung into action, setting up Red

Guard divisions in classrooms and campuses across the country. By August 1966 -

so-called Red August - the mayhem was in full swing as Mao’s allies urged Red

Guards to destroy the “four olds” - old ideas, old customs, old habits and old

culture.

Schools and universities were closed and churches, shrines, libraries, shops

and private homes ransacked or destroyed as the assault on “feudal” traditions

began. Gangs of teenagers in red armbands and military fatigues roamed the

streets of cities such as Beijing and Shanghai setting upon those with “bourgeois”

clothes or reactionary haircuts. “Imperialist” street signs were torn down.

How many victims were there?See MoreHistorians believe somewhere between 500,000 and two million people lost

their lives as a result of the Cultural Revolution. Perhaps the worst affected

region was the southern province of Guangxi where there were reports of mass

killings and even cannibalism.  

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Appalling acts of barbarity also occurred in Inner Mongolia where

authorities unleashed a vicious campaign of torture against supposed separatists.

Even China’s feline population suffered as Red Guards tried to eliminate

what they claimed was a symbol of “bourgeois decadence”. “Walking through the

streets of the capital at the end of August [1966], people saw dead cats lying by

the roadside with their front paws tied together,” writes Dikötter. Yet contrary to

popular belief, the government was responsible for most of the bloodshed, not the

Red Guards.

“We read a lot of horror stories about students beating their teachers to

death in the stairwell,” says Andrew Walder, the author of China Under Mao.

“[But] based on the government’s own published histories well over half, if not

two-thirds of the people who were killed or imprisoned during the Cultural

Revolution suffered that from 1968 to early 1970” as the army moved in to halt

the violence.

The lives of some of the Communist party’s most powerful figures were

upended by the turbulence, including future leader Deng Xiaoping, who was

purged in 1967, and Xi Zhongxun, the father of China’s current president, Xi

Jinping, who was publicly humiliated, beaten and sent into exile. President Xi’s

half-sister, Xi Heping, is said to have taken her own life after being persecuted.

How were foreigners affected?As chaos enveloped Beijing in the summer of 1966, foreign diplomats found

themselves at the eye of the storm. “Earplugs became standard embassy issue,”

the former British ambassador Percy Cradock writes in his memoirs recalling how

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a cacophony of songs praising “our beloved Chairman Mao” became the

soundtrack of life in the capital.

By the following year things had taken a more sinister turn. Red Guards laid

siege to the Soviet, French and Indonesian embassies, torched the Mongolian

ambassador’s car and hung a sign outside the British mission that read: “Crush

British Imperialism!” One night, in late August, diplomats were forced to flee

from the British embassy as it was ransacked and burned. Outside protesters

chanted: “Kill! Kill!”. Anthony Grey, a Reuters journalist in Beijing, spent more

than two years in captivity after being detained by Chinese authorities in July

1967.

What was the Little Red Book?The Cultural Revolution’s official handbook was the Little Red Book, a

pocket-sized collection of quotations from Mao that offered a design for Red

Guard life.“Be resolute, fear no sacrifice, and surmount every difficulty to win

victory!” read one famous counsel. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, Little

Red Book reading sessions were held on public buses and even in the skies above

China, as air hostesses preached Mao’s words of wisdom to their passengers.

During the 1960s, the Little Red Book is said to have been the most printed book

on earth, with more than a billion copies printed.

When did it end?The Cultural Revolution officially came to an end when Mao died on 9

September 1976 at the age of 82. In a bid to move on - and avoid discrediting Mao

too much - party leaders ordered that the Chairman’s widow, Jiang Qing, and a

group of accomplices be publicly tried for masterminding the chaos. They were

known as the “Gang of Four”. Jiang contested the charges claiming she had

merely been “Chairman Mao’s dog” but was sentenced to death in 1981, later

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reduced to life in prison. In 1991, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the

Cultural Revolution, she hung herself.

How did the Cultural Revolution affect China?Mao had hoped his revolutionary movement would turn China into a beacon

of communism. But 50 years on many believe it had the opposite effect, paving

the way for China’s embrace of capitalism in the 1980s and its subsequent

economic boom.

“A common verdict is: no Cultural Revolution, no economic reform,”

Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals write in their book on the period,

Mao’s Last Revolution. “The Cultural Revolution was so great a disaster that it

provoked an even more profound cultural revolution, precisely the one that Mao

intended to forestall.”

Another enduring legacy, experts say, is the obsession of today’s rulers with

stability and political control. Leaders such as Xi Jinping, a 13-year-old Beijing

schoolboy when the cultural revolution began, had a front row seat to the

mayhem, and some even partook in the violence.

“They saw a China that was totally chaotic for about two years and they saw

atrocities sometimes,” says Walder, a Stanford University expert on the period.

“They view the loss of the party’s control as something that will lead to chaos.”

Dikötter believes the nightmarish upheaval also served to destroy any remaining

faith the Chinese people had in their Great Teacher. “Even before Mao died,

people buried Maoism.”

How is the Cultural Revolution remembered today?After Mao’s death, the Communist party made some attempts to confront

the horrors of the previous decade. Some were punished for the violence while

those unfairly purged or persecuted were rehabilitated. But those efforts petered

out in the early 1980s as Beijing became wary of implicating itself in the killing at

a time of growing opposition from Chinese youth. Academics were discouraged

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from digging into the party’s inconvenient truth. Experts say Beijing would seek

to mark this year’s 50th anniversary with deafening silence.

“They won’t go there - it is just too damaging to the party,” says

MacFarquhar. “The party is guilty of three massive blows to the Chinese people:

the [Great] Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the destruction of the

environment which is ongoing now and may in fact be more deadly that the other

two in the long run. And the last thing it wants to say is that we were the guilty

ones.”

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Novel Questions

Part 1Chapter One:

1. What is the setting of the novel? Who are the main characters? Where are the main characters?

2. Why were the villagers so suspicious of the narrator’s Violin?

3. What did the headman mean when he called the violin a bourgeois toy? What was he implying?

4. Why did Luo change the name of the song to “Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao?” Was this an intelligent thing to do?

5. Why would Mao hate intellectuals? What are some actions he took against intellectuals?

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6. What did Luo and the narrator’s parents do? Why were they considered enemies of the people? Is that an appropriate label for the parents? Why/why not?

7. What did Luo’s father do that would upset Mao? Why was Luo’s father labeled a reactionary?

8. Why did Luo’s father admit he slept with the nurse? What makes you believe that? Why would he admit that?

9. Why did Luo hit the narrator when he saw him crying? Was this action justified? What was going on in Luo’s mind that would cause him to act this way?

Chapter Two (pg. 11)1. Where were the boys banished to? Why was this name appropriate?

2. Why do you think their house would become a central point in the village? Why might Luo become the master of it? What traits does he exhibit that would illustrate his ability to control it?

3. What was significant about the boys’ interaction with the clock? How did they use it to their advantage?

4. Why were the villagers so drawn to the boys’ presentation of the film they saw?

Chapter Three (pg. 21)14

1. What does the little seamstress look like? Why is she described as the princess of Phoenix Mountain?

2. Why does the narrator start describing the seamstress at her feet? What does this accomplish? What does this tell you about the seamstress? What does this tell you about the narrator?

3. Why is the tailor treated like a king? What separates him from the other people on the mountain?

4. Why is the seamstress drawn to the boys?

5. Is this narrator interested in the seamstress? Why isn’t Luo interested in the seamstress? Which of the two boys might the seamstress prefer?

Chapter Four (pg. 28)1. Where were Luo and the narrator working?

2. What would some of the effects of working in the mines be? Why would it affect them many years later?

3. Why was Luo crying? What was upsetting him besides working in the poor conditions of the mine?

4. Why did the seamstress write a letter to Luo? Why was she drawn to the two boys?

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Chapter Five (pg. 35)1. Who was the better story teller between Luo and the narrator? What

evidence from the story makes you think that?

Part Two:Chapter Six (pg. 45)

1. How was Four Eyes’ situation different from Luo and the narrators’? Was he at more of a risk?

2. Look at the definition of sadistic. How were the buffalo’s actions sadistic? What are some other sadistic actions the boys have encountered?

3. How do you think Luo was able to deduct that books were in the suitcase? What evidence from the story, and your understanding of Four Eyes, would suggest that Four Eyes was hiding books?

Chapter Seven (pg. 56)

1. What book did Four Eyes give the boys? What was the book about? Why would he select this book?

2. Why did the narrator want to be like Ursule? What similarities do the two characters share?

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3. What transpires between Luo and the seamstress? How do you think the narrator feels after hearing this news? What in the story supports your description of the narrator’s reaction?

Chapter Eight (pg. 61)1. What did Luo want to do to make the seamstress more refined? How

is this different than what Luo felt in the first few chapters? Is what Luo intended to do a benevolent or self-serving act?

2. Consider the following:“This Balzac fellow is a wizard. He touched the head of this mountain girl with an invisible finger, and she was transformed, carried away in a dream. It took a while for her to come down to earth…She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent.” How the seamstress’ reaction to the story different than the boys’ reaction? Why does it affect her so greatly? Does it affect her on a different level? What inherent differences between the seamstress and the boys inform her reaction to the story?

3 Why is Four Eyes trying to talk to the old miller? How do the boys use

this to their advantage?

Chapter Nine (pg. 66)1. Describe the outfits Luo and the narrator were wearing. Why were

they wearing this clothing? What did they hope to accomplish by dressing in such a fashion?

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2. Look at the definition for provincial. In what way does the old miller exemplify the word provincial? What specific things does he say or do that illustrates a provincial lifestyle?

3. What does the miller’s song let you know about the lives of those who lived in his area? Is this what Four Eyes wanted? Will Four Eyes be pleased with the songs they bring him?

Chapter Ten (pg. 76)1. What was Four Eyes’ reaction to the songs? Was this expected? Was

his reaction justified?

Chapter Eleven (pg. 80)1. How big was the town of Yong Jing? What does the story say that

makes you think that? What descriptive language does the narrator use to describe the town? Why does he describe it this way? What does his description accomplish?

2. Who is being released? Why is he being released? What is he doing, upon being released? Is he deserving of being released? Should the boys be released also?

3. Why is the narrator grieving for Balzac? Is his grief justified?

4. What does the seamstress suggest? Is this in character or out of character for her? Is her suggestion a good idea? Why or why not? Should the boys do what she suggests?

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Chapter Twelve (pg. 90)1. Why were the villagers of Yong Jing planning a celebration? Were the

boys invited? What were they planning to do? How were the boys preparing to execute their plan?

2. Who is right, Four Eyes, who’s keeping his books, or the boys, who plan to take the books before he leaves?

3. Why does Four Eyes need a buffalo? What will he do with it? Does he want to do this? Why does he do that?

4. Would Luo and the narrator do this to earn their freedom? What wouldn’t the boys do to return to their families?

Part ThreeChapter Thirteen (pg. 109)

1. Do Luo and the narrator ever get released from the reeducation camp?

2. What ideas and themes did the Western writers expose the narrator to? Is this a good or bad thing? How does this affect the narrator?

3. Why was the narrator drawn to Jean-Christophe? What similarities do the two characters have in common? Do you think Luo would be drawn to this book?

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4. Considering the raven is an ominous symbol in Western culture, what is the significance of the raven the Luo frequently sees? Is this a good or bad sign?

Chapter Fourteen (pg. 119)1. What is ailing the headman? What does he want Luo to do? Why

won’t Luo do it? Should Luo do it?

2. How was the tailor treated when he arrived in town? Why?

3. The narrator refers to the books as forbidden fruit. Using your knowledge of its cultural relevance in the Western world, explain why the narrator compares the books to forbidden fruit. Is this an apt description?

4. What story do the boys tell the tailor? Why is the tailor so drawn to this story? How does the story impact the tailor’s life and work?

5. How does the narrator get caught? What deal does the headman offer him? Should he accept this deal? What are the implications or ramifications of this deal?

Chapter Fifteen (pg. 131)1. Describe the headman’s mouth and the condition of his tooth? What

does this tell you about his lifestyle? What does this tell you about the medicine available to him?

2. How were the boys and the tailor going to fill the tooth? How would you describe their methods? Would barbaric or savage be appropriate? Why or why not?

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Chapter Sixteen (pg. 135)1. Who is narrating the story? Why would Sijie change the narrator?

What purpose does changing the narrator serve?

2. How is Luo lucky?

Chapter Seventeen (pg. 139)1. Who is narrating this chapter?

2. What is the narrator describing? How does this relate to the Miller’s story? Who is with the new narrator?

3. Is the seamstress a good swimmer? What evidence in the story supports your answer?

4. What does the seamstress teach herself to do? Does this worry Luo?

5. What does despair mean? Why does Luo begin to despair? What does he do as a result of his despair? What does the seamstress do in response?

6. What is the new game the two create? What does Luo lose during the game? Why is this ironic?

7. Why is Luo allowed to leave? How do you think he feels about this news?

Chapter Eighteen (pg. 143)

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1. Who is the new narrator? What is she describing? Is the way she speaks surprising? Why or why not?

2. Why does the seamstress say she loves pleasing Luo? What does he represent to her?

3. What does the seamstress find in the water? Why does she go back in? What happens to her?

Chapter Nineteen (pg. 147)1. Did the narrator enjoy being alone? What evidence from the text

supports your answer?

2. What was Luo’s request? Why did he trust the narrator to with this task? Did he suspect the narrator would have dubious intentions? Was his trust of the narrator justified?

3. Why were the men teasing the narrator? What happened as a result of the fight? What are the implications of the fight?

Chapter Twenty (pg. 158)1. Why was the seamstress in trouble? How did the narrator try to

console her? What did he forget to ask her? What obstacles did Luo and the seamstress face?

2. What deal did the narrator make with the doctor? Why might this have been hard for the narrator? What did he have to give up? Do you think the seamstress was appreciative of his efforts?

3. Why did they go to the preacher’s grave? What promise did they make?

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Chapter Twenty-One (pg. 176)1. How much time has passed since the procedure?

2. Why were the boys burning the books? Is this a hard thing to do for them? Look at the definition of pyre, what is the significance of using this word over the word fire?

3. How did the boys hear the seamstress was leaving? What did they do? Was that an appropriate response?

4. How did the two try to get the seamstress to stay? Why was she leaving?

5. Consider the last line of the novel, the seamstress’ parting words:“A woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price.”What does the seamstress mean by this? Why does she quote Balzac? How does it apply to her? How do you think the boys reacted to this? Do you think they agree? What would the boys have said if they were able to react to her parting words?

Short Response Questions:In a short paragraph, discuss why the author only named one character, Luo. What does this tell you about Luo, being the only named character in the text? What does it tell you about the narrator and the seamstress? Why would he do this? What purpose does he hope to accomplish?

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress—Literature and the Arts

Final Letter Writing Assignment (50pts)

Overview: The two young boys in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress have been sent far from home, far from their families and their old lives. They will have had many pivotal and life-changing experiences during their time on Phoenix Mountain, and those experiences will change their views of the world. They are becoming more self-aware—more thoughtfully aware of how they think about others, the world, and themselves. And they are doing it all alone, without the guidance of parents to help them.

Although your lives right now may not be quite as intense or fraught with danger as those of Luo and our narrator, you do have some things in common with these characters: you spend most of your days away from your parents and families, and they probably don’t know much about your daily lives. You are going through experiences every day that affect how you see the world, other people, and yourself. You are becoming more self-aware as you develop your own individual opinions, values, and desires. You are slowly figuring out who you are and who you want to be. And it is very likely that your parents don’t know much about any of it.

For your final assignment for this novel, you will write a letter to your parents. In this letter, you will have a chance to give your parents a bit of insight into the person you are right now. Below, I have given you a loose outline for what I want you to include in your letter. But the amount of detail, the ideas and experiences you choose to share—those are up to you.

I realize that you might think, “but parents already know everything about me”, but I ask you to use this as an opportunity to let your parents know

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what is currently going on in this moment of your life. I suspect there will be at least one thing you write that will be a surprise to them, or something that they will learn about you that they didn’t know before. I promise you that they will appreciate getting to know more about you! **

As part of the assignment, you need to give the letter to your parents, let them read it, perhaps talk about what you wrote, and have at least (1) parent or guardian sign it before turning it in.

Use this format for your letter. Feel free to add more details or ideas as necessary.

Dear _________________________,

Paragraph 1: Begin by telling your parents about who you are right now: what are you passionate or excited about? What do you spend most of your time thinking about? How do you spend your days?

Paragraph 2: Use this paragraph to describe your vision of your future. What kind of life do you see for yourself? What kind of person do you want to become? What do you want to accomplish in the future?

Paragraph 3: Now explain what worries or concerns you. These may be concerns you have about your own personal life, about other people, or about the world around you.

Paragraph 4: Explain what you want from your parents at this point in your life—what role do you want them to play? What do you still need from them? What can they do to help you through the next stage of your life?

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Closing sentiment

(Love, Sincerely, etc)

Sign your name

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