Red Scarf Girl Review Chpt 5-8 à
Chapter 5 Recap (The Graduation)
-The Junior High entrance exam had been canceled. All students would immediately graduate.
-Teacher Gu stops Ji-li in the hall and tells her that Teachers get to assign students to schools.
-She reveals that she placed Ji-li at Shi-yi, her dream school! (And that Ji-li’s best friend, An Yi, would also get to attend). They graduated – no ceremony or party though.
-Her and An Yi couldn’t wait through the summer so they go started on their school supply shopping, strolling through the city with their new bags/lunch boxes, and anticipating the start of school!
-Ji-li and An Yi confronted Teacher Gu on the rumor that teachers weren’t choosing student schools anymore….and it was true – Their choices were invalidated (didn’t count).
-Kids would be going to the school in their neighborhood district and this meant that Ji-li will be stuck in school again with (Red Successors) Yin Lan-Lan and Du Hai.
-Ji-li and An-Yi walked through their old classroom for one last memory.
-Library sign said: CLOSED FOR SORTING THROUGH SUMMER VACATION à So many favorite books would be sorted away forever, labeled as poison.
Chapter 6 Recap (Sounds of Drums & Gongs)
-Red Guards started doing Home Searches/Raids, ransacking houses that they thought were full of fourolds. The sounding of drums and gongs was the signal for a Home Search/Ransacking.
-Mrs. Rong has her house ransacked – she was considered to be a bourgeois, living off of her dead husband’s fortune.
-Grandma didn’t want the kids to watch home searches.
-Ji-li felt that Home Searches were both inspiring (she wants to be a part of it) and scary (what if it happens to her?)
-The adults in Ji-li’s neighborhood felt vulnerable – nobody protected from a potential home search, led by Red Guards and Six Fingers. This led to a very tense summer.
-Ji-li’s parents had to fire Song Po-po, for fear that Red Guards would think they were exploiting her (as a housekeeper) and would be considered bourgeois.
-Ji-li took on adult responsibilities, like buying food at the market.
-Even though pedicabs were considered ‘black’ or only used by bourgeois,
Ji-li and her brother took Grandma to the doctor on one.
-Ji-li’s Dad helped Grandma paint over and dye her trunks and Mom helped cut old dresses and other fabrics, to turn into quilts and mops – all of which would be considered fourolds.
-Grandma wanted to hold on to tradition and keep them in the family [but also wanted to protect the family in case they were searched].
-Ji-li asks her Mom if they could be victims of a house search – Mom replies that it’s possible but that not too worry since it will have nothing to do with her, a child.
Chapter 7 Recap (The Propaganda Wall)
-Propaganda Wall, those in the Black Categories must do Morning Repentance and Evening Report, where they bow to the wall, confess their sins and then praise Chairman Mao.
-Six Fingers (the cocky leader) was head of the Neighborhood Dictatorship Group. He patrolled the Wall and took advantage of his power.
-Jia-Hong Yu came to Ji-li’s neighborhood to speak of her experiences with traveling to Beijing to Establish Revolutionary Ties and getting to see/hear Chairman Mao speak.
-Ji-li’s secret dream was to also be a Red Guard and meet Chairman Mao. Her and everyone listening to Jia Hong Yu’s story were crying from jealousy and inspiration.
-The Red Guards asked Old Qian for his bicycle. He refused to give it because he didn’t support the Cultural Revolution (especially since they killed his son-in-law for being a counterrevolutionary).
-Six Fingers led a Home Search, ransacking Old Qian’s house. They tortured Old Qian by making him watch as he kneeled on a washboard outside, in the scorching sun.
-Ji-li felt sorry for him as he suffered but she agreed that he should have given the Red Guards his bicycle.
-An-Yi’s grandma jumped out of her window and committed suicide. She killed herself because she saw what happened to Old Qian and was afraid she’d be next. She couldn’t take what the Cultural Revolution was doing to those around her and she gave up.
-Friends and family could hardly mourn the death because suicide was considered a crime.
-Even in times of tragedy and sensitivity, Ji-li and her friends/family are still not allowed to express themselves for fear of being seen as Black Category.
Recap chapter 8 (A Search in Passing):
-Ji-li didn’t think her grandma acted like a landlord’s wife since she was beautiful, kind and smart and the stereotype’ of a landlord’s wife was ugly, cruel and stupid.
-Ji-li’s family burned family pictures because things they’re wearing/doing in the photos could be considered fourolds.
-Ji-li wished she was born into a red family instead of a black one. (So she could do Revolutionary duties without worrying)
-Ji-yong had his army cap stolen and was called a black whelp [negative term for a kid from a Black category] by a bunch of boys (but went to get it back and took a black eye for it).
-Ji-li’s family could hear their Fourth Aunt’s house getting ransacking downstairs.
-In shock, they just listened and didn’t move, and then there was a knock on Ji-li’s door, for a SEARCH IN PASSING (Searching a house they just pass by and feel like going into it).
-Six Fingers and Red Guards burst into Ji-li’s house, ransacking and looking for fourolds.
-Ji-li tried to save her stamp album when she saw it on the floor but a Red Guard stopped her and confiscated it (took it away).
-Ji-li’s house took days to clean up and her stamp album was gone forever.
-Ji-li felt hopeless – that she had a bad class status and there was nothing she could do about it.
RSG Vocab:
Propaganda – misleading or false information, meant to show or promote a specific idea.
China used Propaganda to persuade people: (The power of Propaganda influenced people through pictures, radio, newspapers & da-zi-bao).
Propaganda Wall – The public Wall filled with da-zi-bao and Pictures, supporting The Cultural Revolution. Those in The Black Categories had to bow to the Propaganda Wall [at Morning Repentance & Evening Report], confess their guilt and praise Chairman Mao, reciting his quotes from the Precious Red Book, as well as sweep the alley twice a day, where kids could throw things at them/humiliate them.
RSG Vocab
Five Black Categories (Enemies of Communism):
-landlords, rightists, rich farmers/laborers, counterrevolutionaries, criminals
Red vs. Black
*Communists *Bourgeois
*Revolutionaries *Capitalists
*Red Guards *Revisionists
*Proletarians (workers)
Home Search – When the Red Guards targeted people from the Black Categories and went to their houses, looking for fourolds to destroy or take away.
Ransacking – quickly searching through a place to find something, in a way that causes damage.
“Leniency for confession, severity for resistance”
We’ll go easy on you if you confess, we’ll be harsh with you if you resist.