Red Scarf Girl
Red Scarf Girl – Background
 “The story takes place in
Shanghai, China, during the
onset of Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.”
From www.harperchildrens.com
Red Scarf Girl – Background
Mao Zedong
Chairman of
the Chinese
Communist
Party
Red Scarf Girl – Background
 By 1949 Mao established
a Communist state by
Communism:
defeating the former
Major productive
ruling party, the
resources (mines, factories,
Nationalists. In 1966,
farms) are owned by the
when Ji-li's story begins,
public or the state. Wealth
Mao has just imposed
is divided among citizens
the Cultural Revolution to
equally or according to
cut people's ties to preindividual need.
Communist China.”
From www.harperchildrens.com
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 “To lead this revolution he
enlisted help--mostly high
school and college
students--to implement
rules and to eliminate
everything that suggested
a bourgeois lifestyle.”
Bourgeois – “middle class”
From www.harperchildrens.com
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 “Having only grown up during the
Communist state, many young
people had little understanding of
China's pre-Communist past and
were aggressive about enforcing
these rules. These factions of young
people became known as the Red
Guards.”
From www.harperchildrens.com
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 “The Red Guard frequently terrorized
people they felt were not good
Communists, and those under
suspicion often lost their positions or
their memberships in the Communist
Party. Many others were sent to work
camps. Some were thrown in jail or
even killed.”
From www.harperchildrens.com
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 By 1966 there was internal strife in the
Communist Party and many policies
were failing.
 Mao recruited young people to engage
in “continual revolution” in order to
maintain control over his party and to
draw attention away from governmental
failures.
 This time period is the focus of Red Scarf
Girl.
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 “Mao called on the young people in The Red
Guard to destroy the ‘four olds’: old ideas,
habits, customs, and culture. The years from
1966 to 1968 were a period of almost total
anarchy in China. Red Guards seized and
humiliated - in some cases, beat to death anyone allegedly linked with the way China
used to be.”
From “The Mao Years” R. Keith Schoppa
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 “Put destruction first, and in the
process you have
construction.”
 “A revolution is not a dinner
party, or writing an essay, or
painting a picture, or doing
embroidery; it cannot be so
refined, so leisurely and gentle,
so temperate, kind, courteous,
restrained and magnanimous.
A revolution is an insurrection,
an act of violence by which
one class overthrows another.”
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 The Cultural Revolution was meant
to change people’s values and
beliefs.
 It was a systematic attack on
Chinese traditions, culture, and
beliefs (the olds), which people
were expected to replace with new
beliefs and values.
 Burning of books, smashing of
historical artifacts, etc.
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 'Monsters and Demons‘ was
the term used to vilify
specialists, scholars,
authorities and 'people who
entrenched themselves in
ideological and cultural
positions' during the Cultural
Revolution.
 Teachers and intellectuals
were targeted by the Red
Guard.
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 Why would Mao want teachers and
intellects targeted? Why would he
see these groups of individuals as a
threat?
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 During the Cultural
Revolution, China printed
an estimated 2.2 billion
Mao Zedong posters-three for every citizen.
Failing to display Mao
prominently could brand
you a
counterrevolutionary.
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 Quotations from Chairman
Mao Zedong was published
in 1964.
 Every citizen was
(unofficially) required to
study and memorize quotes
from it to be seen as a good
citizen.
Red Scarf Girl – Background
The Cultural Revolution
 Imagine if Barack Obama
came into your house,
destroyed anything that
was expensive or related
to traditions or memories,
and then made you put
posters up and carry
around a book of his
quotes, reciting them
when asked.
 How would you feel?