Red Scarf Girl

"Red Scarf Girl" is a memoir written by Ji-li Jiang about her personal experiences during the Cultural Revolution of China.

The book starts while she is a 12 year old girl still living in Shanghai, China. Ji-Li is at the top of her class, the "da-dui-zhang", or Student Council President, of her school. However, her father prevents her from auditioning for the Central Liberation Army Arts Academy due to her class status. Her family is considered a Black Family, because her grandfather was a landlord! Many people accuse Ji-Li of her families old ways. She gets caught up in the insults and could no longer take it. But Ji-Li must deal with this choice between her future or her family, as this is the primary focus for the entire book. This book describes her experiences with the cultural revolution, including being betrayed by her closest friends, helping to destroy the "four olds" and being forced by the government to write bad things about her teachers.

After the book ends, it reveals that Ji-Li grew up, moved to the U.S. and began to learn English. When she finally spoke fluent English, she started writing this book.

Afterwards

In the Afterwards, Ji Li states that she loved Mao when she was little but later realizes it really wasn't so, because when Mao died, she was very astonished to find out, with everyone found out that they had been deceived. Ji Li moved to the U.S., but she could not forget her childhood, so she wrote this book. Her dad, Jiang Xi-reng, an actor, came to the United States as well. [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642912/ Henry O ] ]

References

*Presentation made by Ji-Li Jiang at Egan Junior High School.
* [http://theplaz.com/wiki/index.php?title=Red_Scarf_Girl_SSR_Project ThePlaz's Book Report]
* [http://www.jilijiang.com/index.html Ji-li Jiang's Homepage]