Red Scarf Girl

Jiang provides a vivid depiction of life as young girl growing up in China during Mao Ze-dong’s Cultural Revolution. I was struck by how pervasive the “Revolution” was, even recruiting children to become foot soldiers of sorts to report classmates for wrongthink. Citizens who were lumped into the “wrong” category of having professions or opinions deemed to be “counter-revolutionary” were publicly shamed to confess their supposed sin in struggle sessions that often turned violent. 

I have mentally revisited this book many times for its tragic warning of how political and social revolutions often demonize segments of their population as enemies… show more.