62 pages • 2 hours read
Ji-li JiangRed Scarf Girl
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Topics
Jiang writes this book in part to “do something for the little girl [she] had been” (266). What story would you write to for the child you were? How would your story help to explain the culture and society you grew up in, and what would it be critical about? What would be the main insight you’d want your readers to come away with? What main insight do you think Jiang wants her reader to take from her story?
Using evidence from the text, analyze the school culture of Jiang’s childhood and compare it to your experience with and knowledge of your own society’s school culture. Some possible points of intersection would be testing, student leadership, and bullying.
Why are landlords considered worse than criminals during the Cultural Revolution? What does “landlord” seem to mean in this context? What would be a comparable set of “Five Black Categories” in your own society?
Compare and contrast the treatment of “black” families and individuals during the Cultural Revolution to systemic racism in other countries.
Explore the book’s treatment of “fate.” To what extent is a person able to decide his or her own fate? To what extent is it determined by their culture, family, or society? If something is “fated,” what responsibility does a person have for the choices they make? Use specific examples from the text to illustrate and support your points.
Why does storytelling matter? Why is it important to read this personal story of growing up in Communist China? What insight do we get from it that we couldn’t get from a history book on the same subject?
Though much of Ji-li’s story is specific to negotiating the particular time period of the Cultural Revolution, what about Ji-li’s experiences are “universal”—comparable to the adolescent experience in other countries and cultures? Why is it important to recognize what is “universal” about her experience?
Jiang’s memoir includes multiple instances of bullying and empathy. Make a case for which is more important to her maturation and her decision to stand by her family rather than save herself. Is it her experience of being bullied or her ability to empathize with other victims of persecution that lead to her ultimate recognition that taking care of her family is more important than her own “bright future.”
Explore this memoir’s treatment of power and powerlessness. It is said that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Where do we see evidence of this in Jiang’s memoir? When does Ji-li feel the most powerless, and how does she respond to it?
Explore the irony of individualism within Communist China. Communist ideology eschews individualism because it seems to be in conflict with the common or collective good. Communism’s answer to this is to place the responsibility for deciding what is best for the common good in the hands of the state. As we see in Jiang’s memoir, however, the state often appeals to people’s individual ambition and instinct for self-preservation to elicit their compliance with the state. How is Ji-li’s decision to stay loyal to her family both an act of individualism and an act of self-sacrifice? How would a decision to disown her family also be an act of individualism and an act of self-sacrifice?
