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In 1971, Mao’s Cultural Revolution waved over China, sweeping down universities and banishing “reactionary intellectuals” to the countryside part of the country. The two teenage boys, Luo and Ma, are sent to live in a remote place in China with rocky mountains known as Phoenix in the Sky. Luo and his best friend Ma, in their stay in the village, make efforts to spread the knowledge they acquired in middle school to the locals. Their goodwill and efforts were was “precisely nil”; they are were considered dangerous intellectuals in the society and forced to spent their days carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain to fertilize the fields as their punishment. Love and passion evolve in the story, where Luo falls in love with the beautiful Little Seamstress. The passion drives Luo into stealing Four Eyes’ suitcase to educate and transform the Seamstress from a peasant into a sophisticated woman. The two friends’ plot to steal books transforms the novel into an adventure that draws the reader to the artistic narrative and the unexpected consequences that follow, drive the novel to a dazzling and heart-wrenching conclusion. The novel is divided into various parts that comprise historical, legendary, and passionate tales.
The Chinese countryside was so illiterate in such a way that storytelling was the only form of entertainment, and Luo was good at storytelling. Storytelling was a pleasing talent that Luo had and the only dream the future held. The modern man today has moved away from the age of the Thousands-and –One-Nights, and modern societies everywhere, whether socialist or capitalist, have done away with the old stories in the modern world (Sijie, p.18). The story’s narrative form is the first person, told from Ma’s point of view about the past.
An appropriate sample of seventeen-year-old Ma’s narration is as follows: “I am not exaggerating when I say that Luo was the best friend I ever had. We grew up together; we shared all sorts of experiences, often tough ones.
We very rarely quarreled” (Sijie p. 9).
The narrator used flashbacks to bring out the art of storytelling. For the boys, the books represented their former life. The books helped to keep them in touch with their former lives, and they did not have to completely forget where they came from, and this helped them get through the re-education. For the Little Seamstress, the idea of the books was new. It opened new opportunities and a new way of life to her.
It is obvious that the books have a profound effect on her; it changes her idea of a woman’s role, her morality, and the kind of life she wants to lead. Once she had experienced what the books had to offer, it was not something she was willing to give up, and it was worth risking her life to keep (Sijie, p. 18).
When we first read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, we are transformed by Balzac’s story of awakening desire, passion, and impulsive action. What is more fascinating about this story is where these two little boys are to a remote corner of China for re-education, and the alarm clock they carry along is the only timepiece in town. Life is dreary and hard there, but the power of storytelling offers some respite. These two friends, Luo and his friend, are sent to watch the films shown in the distant town and then re-tell them to the locals. The power of storytelling becomes the only form of entertainment that the locals can relate to (Sijie, p. 57).
When Luo is sent to the mountains for re-educated, he bitterly resents the idea. The young males remained under the instruction of China’s elderly population, which were mainly poor peasants. He begins liking the place when he met Seamstress and wished to reeducate her. When he stole Four-Eye’ suitcase full of novels, he says that he will transform Seamstress from a simple mountain girl to a more sophisticated. The novel presents dictatorship, for example, Luo and his friend never asked why they were sent for re-education, and also they did openly rebel or try to escape; they deal with it quietly without question. During the 1960s and 1970s, China was in the middle of political disarray that is known as the Cultural Revolution. It is trying to free itself from shackles of representation and cultural representation of isolation. This government does not maintain order through prosperity but rather it maintains it by instilling constant fear and hatred in its people. Was the role of Cultural Revolution some form of dictatorship to China people (Sijie, p. 100).
When the narrator’s friend Luo suffers from malaria, he is called to tell a story in the remote village tucked into a cleft in the mountain where his friend had fallen ill into he calls it some form of stupor. This shows that locals were not educated as Luo friend could not be taken to hospital, maybe story telling would make him well (Sijie, p. 39). This story is structured almost like a diary because it is told from the narrator’s point of view.
It gives a more intimate view into how the Communist re-education has affected the people. Instead of just telling the story of the Communist Revolution and re-education like in a textbook the information is put into a form that will reach out to the reader. This makes it a far more effective story. At the end, it gives the perspective of Luo and the Little Seamstress, so it can also offer more insight into how those characters are affected by the situation. Many of the characters were also not given specific names, for example, the little Seamstress, the old miller, the headman, the tailor, etc., because this helped prove Chairman Mao’s point that he wanted everyone to be common and the same as everyone else. Another important point in this type of structure is that it enforces the idea of story telling. The narrator emphasizes the importance of story telling and its significance in transforming people’s life.
When Cultural Revolution was launched in China in 1968, intellectuals, professionals, and a million of other people were forced to relocate to the remote areas and subjected to hard labor in the agricultural and industrial firms. Luo and Ma were forced to work in a local mine and carry buckets of excrement up and down a mountain. The communists stripped many subjects in schools, so this leaves the boys with only basic education. The knowledge the boys posses and that of their parents, the one who is a desists, is termed as “dangerous” to the revolution. The parents exposed the boys to the Western music and literature that makes them a “contamination” scorned by the friends. It is surprising that
China did not appreciate civilization for example, Luo and Mao were sent away to have decadent western ideas re-educated out of them. Dai goes on to comment that “Every nook and cranny of the land came under the all-seeing eye of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which had cast its gigantic, fine-meshed net over the whole China” (Sijie, p. 160).
The political system in China had the ability to shape and control people’s basic wishes. From this we learn that Chinas people personality, individuality and appreciation of its countries tradition are swallowed whole by authority attached to the government. This novel introduced a lot of new information to me. I had never actually heard of Chairman Mao and what had happened under his rule before. So, this novel was an eye-opener for me as to major historical events. It was interesting to learn what the government found as threatening; intellectuals, violin playing, books, etc. I had not been aware that those seemingly harmless acts could be considered dangerous; however, books have been considered dangerous in many situations (i.e. Kristallnacht and many more). It was also interesting to see the culture of the “common” man in China and the work that they did; agriculture, mining, etc. How abortion was handled was also a new cultural idea for me. I had never heard of stipulations such as women-only being allowed to have abortions if they’re married, and only being able to get married at the age of twenty five. This is obviously a very poor method in handling those situations and dealing with sexuality. However, this did play a major role in Chinese culture because after the communist rule, there was a One Child Policy instituted which only allowed each family to have one child, which increased the amount of abortion. It is fascinating to look at how the government handled these situations and comparing them with other cultures that I am familiar with.
Western literature is presented throughout the novel in extension of western values, however, the notion is portrayed as terrible deprivation. Is through the westernization that enlightened the Little Seamless. She appreciates the education and moves to the city. The books education and exposes the naive girl and she tells Luo that she has learnt from Balzac that a woman’s beauty is beyond price. The Little Chinese Seamstress story is told in a chronological order that relates to the two main characters in relation to their lives. Their lives are told at one day at a time, one event took place after the other. The story has a rural set-up, Luo and his friends are stuck in the village, but that does not stop them from gaining and sharing the knowledge they have. The novel is also divided into four sections and each one of them is focused in each character’s point of view. For instance, “The old Miller’s Story, “Luo’s Story, and “The Little Seamstress’s Story”. The subdivisions give us a better view on each character’s outlook in life. We see that Old Miller is more indigenous and traditional in his beliefs, whereas Luo is young and thriving with a middle school education and the Little Seamstress Chinese is the youngest, naive and is searching for a new in the big city and hopes of new opportunities. The story’s narrates in form of first-person of which is told from Ma’s point of view about the past (Sijie, p. 184).
The novel presents the theme of curiosity to make the reader interested in the narrative. For example, Little Seamstress experiences literature for the first time, and she is eager to experience the world. Everything she hears and learns is completely new to her. She is only familiar with Chinese traditional lifestyle situated in an old, tiny village because it’s the only life she’s ever known. The books give her something new to dream about, a new life to experience. Once she got the taste of the knowledge in the books, she continually wanted to learn more, and her appetite for knowledge could not be satisfied. Each of the characters is willing to risk their lives to read because their thirst for knowledge is what brings them to life. The environment surrounding them is so depressing but they still pursue to gain knowledge outside their optimism (Sijie, 2002).
During the time of revolution, Chinese history mindlessly destroyed traditionalism. There was no distinction made between the traditional valuing of patriarchy and the value of family. Luo and Ma were sent away to a far remote place away from their family and friends. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress offer as a good picture of China during the Cultural Revolution; the inhuman conditions people were subjected to, the incredible poverty in the Chinese countryside and the political capable minority individuals that managed life better than others within the system. Clearly, we don’t get to understand the mandate of the Cultural Revolution in China, was the purpose behind it killing people ruthlessly and creating more poverty among its people? Balzac and the Little Seamstress story is a moving testament to the transformative power of literature.
Works Cited
Dai, Sijie. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. New York: Anchor Books, 2002
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