Red Scarf Girl Study Guide

Ji-li Jiang was born in Shanghai in 1954. Both her parents were actors, although her mother quit the theater when she started having children. Ji-li and her two younger siblings, Ji-yong, and Ji-yun lived with their parents and paternal grandmother in Shanghai. Ji-li excelled at school from a young age, but her family got caught up by the revolutionary fervor of China’s Cultural Revolution. Her father was detained and eventually sent to the countryside to be reeducated by hard labor in a prison camp. Ji-li eventually earned her teacher’s certificate from Shanghai University and taught science in China for several years, but she fled the country in the early 1980s and moved to Hawaii. There she attended the University of Hawaii and launched a career in the travel, hospitality, and healthcare industries. Red Scarf Girl, published in 1997, was her first book. She has since authored several more books for young readers, and she founded a nonprofit, called Cultural Exchange International.

In 1949, under the direction of Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party declared victory in a series of civil wars that stretched back to the late 1920s. With his party firmly in power, Chairman Mao embarked on a series of social reforms and programs that he hoped would make China a shining example of communism on the world stage. Unfortunately, the success of these programs was mixed. Some contributed to the rapid industrialization of China and brought the nation into the atomic and space ages. Others led to disaster, like the Great Leap Forward, inaugurated in 1958 as the next step toward transforming China from an agricultural society into an industrial society. Not only did this campaign fail to meet its goals, but a mix of questionable practices, including diverting labor from agriculture to small-scale steel production and a campaign to eradicate pests, led to disaster and ultimately brought about the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1962)—the largest famine and one of the worst human-made disasters in recorded history. As many as 55 million people died. In its aftermath, Mao found himself sidelined within the Party and the day-to-day running of the Chinese government. This, in turn, allowed other Communist Party officials to gather more power for themselves. To reconsolidate his own power and to purge the party of his rivals, Chairman Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Mao mobilized high school and college students, calling on them to rebel and to challenge or overthrow entrenched Party leadership at local and national levels. Violence, chaos, and persecution characterized this period of Chinese history. Tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of people died. Historical sites and important artifacts were destroyed. Many people, even faithful Party members, found themselves accused of counterrevolutionary beliefs or activities. By 1968, the situation had become so unstable that Chairman Mao had to mobilize the Army to quell insurrectionary activities, although the Revolution itself lasted until his death in 1976.

Red Scarf Girl gives a brief window into the events of the Cultural Revolution, especially its first two years (1966–1968). Many other Chinese authors who lived through this period have written memoirs about the time for young adult and adult audiences, including Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Li Cunxin’s Mao’s Last Dancer, and Wenguang Huang’s The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir. Chang’s memoir relates how she joined the Red Guards as a teenager while having to watch her parents endure humiliation and torture for their mild criticism of the Communist Party. Huang’s book explores the Cultural Revolution through the experiences of his family as they desperately try to preserve their traditions while simultaneously escaping detection by the authorities. Cunxin’s book explores how communism created opportunities as well as limitations for Chinese citizens, especially from rural areas. Finally, Red Scarf Girl invokes many phrases from Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, also known as The Little Red Book or the Precious Red Book. First published in 1964, this book contains quotations drawn from many of Mao’s other writings organized thematically. During the Cultural Revolution, possession of the Red Book was a vital part of Chinese culture, as reading and studying it were social and educational requirements. The quotations within it directed the youth movements at the heart of the Cultural Revolution, serving as a series of rules and maxims to follow and enforce.