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Chapter 13: Half-City Jiangs
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Red Scarf Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conformity vs. Loyalty
Class, Power, and Justice
The Power of Propaganda
Identity and Individualism
Hard Work and Success
Summary
Analysis
Ji-li feels very nervous on the day of the Class Education Exhibit preview, during which school and district leaders will evaluate the students’ projects and speeches. She knows that she faces additional scrutiny after the Workers’ Revolt article about the Jiang family. Nevertheless, she makes it through her speech about the horrors of old China and the abuses that landlords like Liu Wen-cai carried out. She tells the story of a blind grandfather who fell so far in debt to Liu that Liu forced him to sell his granddaughter into slavery. At relevant parts of her speech, Ji-li—nearly in tears herself—points to statues portraying the weeping grandfather and granddaughter. The evaluators listening to her impassioned performance are in tears, too.
Liu Wen-cai is a historical Chinese landowner who died in 1949 just before the Communist Party takeover. During the Cultural Revolution, he became the archetypical evil landlord, and stories about his deeds were widely published as propaganda. As such, most were likely false or exaggerated. The upsetting story Ji-li tells helps to explain why her society reviles landlords. But it also contrasts sharply with the story Dad told about his own infirm father and his relatively impoverished childhood. Looking at specific, true stories undermines the power of the propaganda—but Ji-li wants so desperately to belong that she cannot see the disconnect in this moment.
Active
Themes
As the evaluators move on to the next booth, Ji-li hears An Yi and Sun Lin-lin calling her name from outside the hall. They wanted to see her speech but were not allowed in, so they listened through an open window. They enthusiastically congratulate her on doing a terrific job. The return of the evaluators and school Revolutionary Committee Chairman Jin interrupts the girls’ conversation. Ji-li has been dreading this moment. She thinks he will expose her as a landlord’s granddaughter, publicly humiliate her, and expel her from the exhibition. Instead, he congratulates her on her moving performance and asks her to help the other students improve theirs. As they move on to the next booth, Ji-li sinks into a chair, exhilarated—and surprised—by the praise.
While Ji-li appreciates the support from her friends, it matters little when weighed against the official praise or censure she will receive from Chairman Jin, the highest Party authority at the school. She expects him to judge her on her class status, and when he doesn’t, Ji-li takes it as a sign that her hard work and effort matter more than her landlord ancestors. But readers should remember that this hasn’t been generally true in her experience thus far. Moreover, Thin-Face and Teacher Zhang have emphasized the idea of being an ‘educable’ child—one capable of being remolded to conform with Party ideology—and of a clean break with her family. These messages suggest that just criticizing landlords in a speech is a good first step towards rehabilitating her class status but will not be enough on its own.
Active
Themes
But a few days later, the Revolutionary Committee calls Ji-li to the office for a study session with some of the members of Dad’s work unit. She expected something like this, but she thought it would happen at home, not at school where her classmates and teachers would find out about it. In the office, she finds Thin-Face, a woman she doesn’t recognize, and Teacher Zhang. Teacher Zhang encourages her with his kind eyes. Thin-Face explains that Dad has serious problems. In addition to coming from a landlord family, he refuses to confess the “serious mistakes” he made during the Antirightist Movement. Thin-Face reminds Ji-li that they will still consider her an educable child if she makes a “clean break” from her black family. They want her to testify against Dad at his upcoming struggle meeting.
Active
Themes
As Ji-li tries to imagine herself on a stage, condemning Dad, the woman from the theater explains that testifying is easy if a person has the right “class stance.” She tells Ji-li that when theater’s former Party Secretary was denounced, her daughter went so far as to slap her while making her own “clean break.” Thin-Face tells Ji-li that she can also prove herself to be Chairman Mao’s child if she tells them things Dad said or did at home that betrayed his “landlord and rightist mentality.” Weakly at first, then with conviction, Ji-li testifies that her father never said anything critical of Chairman Mao or the Party. Thin-Face narrows his eyes. He tells Ji-li that if she does not choose to make a clean break, she—and Ji-yong and Ji-yun—will face many more “study sessions” like this one.
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After Thin-Face and the woman leave the office, promising to return for Ji-li’s statement soon, she runs from the school in a blind panic. She hides herself in a narrow passageway between the school building and the schoolyard wall, feeling like a trapped animal. That night, she cannot sleep. But the exhibition is the next day, so she rubs her eyes and dashes to school. Bai Shan stands just outside the doorway of the exhibition hall, and as she rushes past him, he quietly warns her to brace herself. Inside, Chairman Jin informs her that the Revolutionary Committee can no longer let her participate in the exhibition due to her political situation. Coldly, he dismisses her. Ashamed, she rushes from the hall, ignoring Bai Shan’s attempt to speak to her.
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Themes
