Red Scarf Girl

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Coming of Age During the Cultural Revolution” 

In this activity, students will examine events and conflicts within Ji-li’s character arc in order to illustrate her transformation from a goal-driven child to a responsibility-driven young adult.

By the end of the memoir, Ji-li observes that she has transformed from a goal-driven child to a responsibility-driven young adult. For this project, you will create a visual representation of Ji-li’s character transformation that combines direct quotes and examples from the text for support.

• Step One: Analyze - Examine the memoir to identify the conflicts, motivations, influences, choices, and events that facilitate Ji-li’s character transformation. Identify which elements of the plot, conflicts, or characters you think represent the turning point in her transformation.
• Step Two: Plan - Create a web, storyboard, or sketch that organizes the elements you identified in step one. Your goal is to visually capture Ji-li’s transformation and support your visual with concise quotes and examples from the text.
• Step Three: Create - Create your visual using your plan from Step Two.
• Step Four: Present - Present and display your visual. Note differences and similarities between your representation and your peers’ representations.

Visual character arcs will be presented to peers and displayed publicly.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may benefit from a discussion of Ji-li’s transformation as a class or in small groups before beginning. This Activity may be more accessible if linked explicitly to the previous Discussion/Analysis Prompt. Students may benefit from a list of acceptable forms or templates for this project, such as a storyboard or comic, poster, flow chart, or infographic.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students with organizational or executive functioning differences, graphic organizers or step guides may be beneficial. For multilingual learners, pre-selected and/or pre-highlighted passages may help with time management and support the transition from comprehension to analysis. To open this assignment up to more learning styles and cultures, consider allowing options for group work, written forms, dramatic reenactment, or oral responses.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The shift in political climate during the Cultural Revolution led to a change in relationships for many people, including Ji-li. For this essay, choose only one relationship to examine, such as Ji-li’s relationship with a parent, peer, or teacher.

• How did Ji-li’s relationship change with this person, and why? (topic sentence)
• Describe Ji-li’s relationship with this person before and after the start of the Cultural Revolution, and then explain what aspects of the Cultural Revolution influenced these changes.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain what impact this change in relationship has on Ji-li’s character development and Coming of Age.

2. Throughout the memoir, Ji-li struggles to reconcile her own notions of right and wrong with the state’s notions of right and wrong, despite her desire to be a good citizen.

• Why does Ji-li struggle to completely embrace the ideology of the Cultural Revolution? (topic sentence)
• Describe the state’s actions that make Ji-li doubt her own ideas of right and wrong, and then explain how this doubt impacts her choices.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, identify the central conflict undermining Ji-li’s belief in the state and discuss how it relates to the theme of Fate and Agency or Individualism.

3. Ji-li witnesses multiple instances of both harassment and compassion throughout the memoir. For this essay, you will defend, refute, or qualify a stance to determine which witnessed acts have the most impact.

• Does witnessing acts of harassment and intimidation or acts of compassion and empathy contribute more to Ji-li’s choice to protect her parents? (topic sentence)
• Explain why witnessing harassment or compassion plays a bigger influence in Ji-li’s decision to protect her parents, and then support this with at least three examples from the story.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how taking this stance over another might influence readers’ perceptions of her motives.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Ji-li Jiang explores concepts of Fate and Agency throughout her memoir, highlighting the interplay between individual power and powerlessness. To what degree are the young peers Ji-li describes in control of their actions, and in what ways are they not? How do they grapple with individual notions of power and powerlessness, and what are the results? How does the concept of fate help Ji-li explain her own conflicting experiences? Overall, what message does the memoir support regarding Fate and Agency?

2. Ji-li Jiang’s memoir exposes many ironies and contradictions within the ideology driving the Cultural Revolution. Based on Ji-li’s experiences as a child, in what ways does the state fail to destroy the Four Olds and create a society more focused on the common good, despite its campaigns and the efforts of citizens? To what extent are Ji-li’s internal conflicts a result of attempting to reconcile the contradictory aims of the state within herself? Why does it seem to have failed in this instance, despite the people like Ji-li and her family generally agreeing with Mao and desiring to be good citizens?

3. A common aspect of coming-of-age stories is the examination of how new peers and influences undermine the teachings a young person has grown up with, forcing them to question and sometimes change their own values. In what ways does Ji-li struggle to reconcile her upbringing with the rules and influences presented by peers and outside institutions? What does she learn from these observations and interactions, and how do they help her determine the type of person she becomes?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What does skipping the audition represent for Ji-li?

A) An exercise of her own agency

B) An element of her own individualism

C) A sign that her life will not go as planned

D) A rejection of her hard work and dedication

2. How is the Destroy Four Olds campaign different from the Steel Making and Food Production initiatives?

A) The Destroy Four Olds campaign is destructive, whereas the others are constructive.

B) The Destroy Four Olds campaign is less abstract, whereas the others are less concrete.

C) The Steel Making and Food Production initiatives now represent capitalist ideology.

D) The Steel Making and Food Production initiatives no longer relate to Mao.

3. What is a da-zi-bao?

A) A pedicab associated with bourgeois ideals

B) A poster critiquing bourgeois ideals

C) A slogan meaning “crush the Olds”

D) A person with bad class standing

4. What does Ji-li notice about the impact of the Cultural Revolution on her classmates?

A) They do not seem as upset by the changes as she is.

B) Students stop coming to school.

C) School is no longer valued.

D) Students who had the lowest grades are now top students.

5. What are the Red Guards?

A) The Red Guards are a student-led paramilitary organization.

B) The Red Guards are Mao’s secret police force.

C) The Red Guards are civilian informants and organizers.

D) The Red Guards are the new name of the police force.

6. Which of the following statements captures Ji-li’s observations of how the Cultural Revolution changed interpersonal relationships?

A) People bonded in a spirit of mutual support and understanding.

B) People turned against each other, fearing guilt by association.

C) People’s interpersonal relationships changed little despite political pressures.

D) People were more willing to work together because they had a shared goal.

7. What might the destruction of the family’s ancestral clothing illustrate?

A) The family’s sincere disavowal of the Four Olds

B) The revolution’s desire to revise history and culture

C) The contagion of bourgeois ideals

D) The impossibility of political reform and a return to good standing

8. What is at the center of Ji-li’s identity conflict?

A) She becomes a traitor whether she chooses to side with family or the revolution.

B) She has no agency in deciding her identity for herself.

C) She disagrees with Mao but must pretend to support him for her family’s sake.

D) She identifies as a hero of the revolution but is rejected because of her class.

9. Why does not knowing her classmates in junior high fill Ji-li with relief instead of dread?

A) She is glad her bad political status will not rub off on former friends.

B) She is secretly happy not to be associated with An-yi and her bad political status.

C) She is more afraid in anticipation of the day her class status is again exposed.

D) She can show her merits and improve her status if no one knows her class standing.

10. Which of the following is a type of coercion Ji-li’s mother is subjected to after Ji-li’s father is detained?

A) Authorities threaten to torture her unless she agrees to inform on her husband.

B) Authorities at work cut her pay and threaten her job unless she agrees to inform on her husband.

C) The police threaten to investigate her family background and expose her secrets.

D) The police claim they already know her husband’s crimes and accuse her of being guilty too.

11. In what way is a “struggle meeting” ambiguous and euphemistic?

A) Subjects of the meeting are not expected to struggle, but to learn from their mistakes.

B) It is a kind of brainwashing tool.

C) It is only a struggle if the subject resists.

D) It reframes public harassment and mob justice as honorable acts of revolution.

12. How does Ji-li view the “study session” she must attend following her father’s detainment?

A) It is an attempt to reconcile her ancestry with her class status.

B) It is an act of intimidation to coerce her into testifying against her father.

C) It is a heartfelt attempt to re-educate her and break her bourgeois habits.

D) It is about improving her test scores even though she is already a top student.

13. What is Ji-li’s father’s alleged crime?

A) He listens to foreign radio.

B) He is plotting a coup.

C) He is having an affair.

D) He is a secret landlord.

14. What does Ji-li’s choice to conceal the location of the letter help her realize?

A) She realizes she chose family first and will remain loyal to them.

B) She realizes she is not afraid of bad social standing anymore.

C) She realizes that fate has already decided her actions.

D) She realizes that she always had the agency to make her own choices.

15. What lesson does Ji-li Jiang suggest can be learned from the cultural revolution?

A) Friends and neighbors can never be trusted.

B) Humans are all susceptible to fear, intimidation, and coercion.

C) Without a sound legal system, one person can manipulate an entire country.

D) Even with the right actions, fate can undermine the course of a person’s life.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. In the Epilogue, Ji-li Jiang claims that the country viewed Mao as a god. Where is this supported in the story?

2. In choosing to remain loyal to her family, how is Ji-li making both a selfish and self-sacrificing choice? What does this illustrate about state attempts to erase individualistic tendences?