Into Another Level - Reading and Historical Understanding

Red Scarf Girl is a historical memoir
by Ji-li Jiang about her experiences
during the Cultural Revolution of China,
with a foreword by David Henry Hwang.

This story, told in the first person by Ji Li Jiang, raises awareness of what can happen in a country when an ideology of a dictator who achieves power uses the government to control the population. Ji Li's story does so in a way similar to what a reading of George Orwell's 1984 does, with the added emphasis of it being an actual memoir. Both titles shed light on the human desire for power and the natural tendency of governments to move toward institutional power and control if they are not kept in check. Both stories can also give us useful insights into the current context in the USA and around the world. Red Scarf Girl does so in an authentic way told from the perspective of someone who has lived through the kind of tyranny we in USA all thought we were (some still think we are) immune to.  

Red Scarf Girl was published in 1997. It foreshadows what we are in many ways seeing transpire today across the US and the world. One very important tactic described and currently being used to control the citizenry is the revision of history. Ji-Li's experience of historical revision reaches deeply into her personal and family life. Her understanding of her family's past is totally revised externally and in her own mind based on the propaganda of the Communist Party during Mao's cultural revolution. Students were given the definitive description of each class of people and every individual within that class. Each was determined to be an enemy or an ally to the regime based on the class status of their ancestors and other family members. No discussion. No nuance. No reality. You are who we say you are. There is no escaping your class background.

If you have any interest in studying this phenomenon or the history of it, you can read a stack of high level academic works (I'll list some below that I have found worthwhile) and of course George Orwell's work, but honestly and especially for your own children and students (depending on their age) there may not be a need to read a highly emotionally charged and/or advanced reading or difficult text when we still have valuable first person accounts like this one from Ji Li Jiang. 

1984 is emotionally hard to read and even more so is Brave New World, in my opinion. Red Scarf Girl is geared towards readers of about a 6th-7th grade reading level. Red Scarf Girl presents the facts of one persons life, which do in fact carry an emotional charge, but not to the extent that the reader (unless highly sensitive) will find the need to turn away from the story. However, please, do be available for discussion and processing as it will certainly raise intensely important questions for students.

Amazingly though, this recount of the author's life in China lays out in many ways the techniques of censorship and manipulation. Most pertinent to the discussion in my view is that we are currently  experiencing the same techniques in the West.

I'd say this is a must read and given the reading level it will be a quick read for most, especially adults. It provides a window into history, worldview ideology, politics and opportunities for learning and  discussions involving each of those subjects. And if you are interested in a deeper dive, have time and the reading aptitude, below is a more extensive list:

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park - A story similar to Red Star Girl from Korea.

Animal Farm by George Orwell 

1984 by George Orwell - Both Orwell titles should be a warning not a blueprint.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx - We might as well hear it from a sources of communist ideology.

The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - This one is a more personal experience & more intense, a long hard read.

Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay - Important scholarly work from these two accomplished academics.