Before reading this book, I was not aware or familiar at all with the Cultural Revolution that took place in China. Reading about it through a narrative form gave it a human perspective which drew me into being more inquisitive to what the Cultural Revolution was all about. The author stated the book was fictional, but based on some of her experiences growing up during this time. It was interesting reading it from the perspective of the main character, who was the daughter of two doctors. It was a hard read at times because this young girl, not even a teenager yet, had to endure so much. I liked the contrast in her relationships with her mother and her father. She was very close to her father and that warmth and humor they shared helped her stay strong through this extremely hard time her family was going through. She had a more distant relationship with her mother, but as time went by, and especially after her father had been taken away, she seemed to gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of her mother. Their relationship was still not the warm affectionate kind like she had with her father, but you could see the love she had for mother and you see her start to understand the love her mother felt for her, even is she showed it in a different way. I could not even begin to understand how much fear she must of felt when worrying about her parents or seeing her close family friends be brutalized. Also, putting yourself in the shoes of the parents, it must have been extremely frighting to have to always worry about your actions and how they could come back to affect your family. Her father, must have struggled with wanting to do the right thing, but not wanting to call negative attention towards his family. For example, he stood up for Mrs. Wong when they had brought her out to the courtyard and cut her hair. I am sure it that moment, he was having the internal conflict of not wanting to stand by and watch a close family friend be mistreated and brutalized in such a way, but he also had to struggle with the fact that he might be putting his own wife and daughter in harms way if he did take action. The way the father was portrayed reminded me very much of the character, Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird. He seemed like a very kind man with great integrity that garnered great respect, not only from his family, but from the community as well.
Seeing the progress of the Cultural Revolution and how fast and how much of an impact it had throughout the story was shocking. It seemed to gain momentum and impact quite rapidly. It was also shocking that the red guards consisted of middle and high school children. It makes you wonder how such a population of a people can grasp on to the same mentality at become so violent and brutal and inhumane towards one another. Is it done through fear? Do people truly buy into what they believe they are right about? This book would be a good way to introduce students to studying the Cultural Revolution because as you connect with the characters, you become more interested into way this was happening and how could this happen.
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