Summary: Red Scarf Girl

It is time to blog again! This nine week is close to wrapping up, and the midterms are approaching swiftly. Since the past weekend was a four-day weekend, I had more time to read, and I also got more time to sleep as well. I read more than usual this past two weeks because I finished American Lightning last week and started a new book which I finished this week. I think I have read a total of about 400 pages, but most of it was from my new book, Red Scarf Girl.

In my newest book, Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-Li Jiang, it retells the personal story of the author when she was a young child during the Cultural Revolution. If you don't know what the Cultural Revolution was, it was an upheaval that overtook China from 1966 to 1976. Mao Zedong, the chairman
of the Communist Party, used the youth, the Red Guards, to persecute the innocent and bring out any anti-Communists in the country. Persecute the innocent? That sounds familiar... McCarthyism, maybe. But this time, it was quite the opposite that makes it ironic. Instead of going after the communists, the Chinese went after the capitalists, but the punishments were harsher than the Americans against Communists. The story revolves around a Ji-Li, who was only twelve at the time when the revolution began, and she praised Mao Zedong dearly much like the rest of the youths. She was proud of her country by wearing the symbolic red scarf around their neck because it was "dyed red with the blood of our revolutionary martyrs" (28). Her attitude about the Communist Party was nothing but appreciation and honor, and she wanted to join Mao in destroying the old traditions and setting up the new ones. As a bright, hopeful student that was ready to take on that challenge, her life turned a twist when she found out about her family's background. Her grandpa was the committed the greatest crime considered in China, being a landlord. Throughout the revolution, the working class hated the middle class and the rich, because they blame them for all their misery and laborious exploit. Since the majority of the youths were learned to loathe the rich, Ji-Li has an internal conflict on whether she should hate her family for being rich or not. She tried to decide her path and "figure things out, the more confused [she] felt" (126). This was a prevalent issue for her throughout the book as she entered into more disheartening situation that twelve years old shouldn't have to face. Everyone in her town started to mock her family, her friend's parents committed suicide due to their class, and people around her were taken away to political camps or imprisoned. Most of the acts were carried out by the youths known as the Red Guards, and they were composed of high school students and college students. Even through all her troubles, she was persistent in believing in the Communist party and "would not allow [herself] to stop trying to follow Chairman Mao" (199). She did not fully abandon her family, but it was a difficult life decision for her to make. If she chooses her family, she will lose all promises in the new China, and if she doesn't, she will be ashamed of herself. In the end, she chooses her family; however, this decision should've been simple, but it wasn't because of the political brainwashing of the Communist Party. Mao Zedong targeted the youth because the youth are easier to manipulate to gain their trust as their experience in the world is limited. Mao censored everything the media has to offer from books, newspaper, and radio. With those implementations, it was quite easy to influence the young minds and soon, everyone was on board with Mao by joining the Red Guard, whose sole duty was to interrogate and investigate the citizens of China. The youths are ultimately the future of the nation, and it is crucial for the political power to continue their framework of their country by entrusting their roles into the heart and soul of the young, whom one day will replace them.

Being in the modern world, there is less controlled censorship as you can literary find out just about anything and anyone with the internet; nevertheless, there are still forms of brainwashing that are causing identity problems.
Religion has negatively been associated with brainwashing, most prevalent in the Islamic world. In this article, it talks about how people get strongly influenced to the point they are willing to join the terrorist group, ISIS. Most of these people that follow in such appalling acts are greatly deceived, making them be easy targets of manipulation. Even when a person is highly educated or well-informed, they are still subjected to control because they're " given enough information to formulate a fantasy." By believing in with limited information, people will follow others to find such enlightenment or a way of life. Unlike Ji-Li, who had little knowledge of what the outside world was other than Communist China, the idea of her changing her attitude towards China if she had that knowledge would be unlikely because China is her home which she values more than anything. The article continues to state that the people who are indoctrinated are "essentially people who want to improve themselves, or want to make the world a better place, in one way or another." People become who they are and what they choose to believe is determined by their surrounds as that is what shapes their character, but if they are engulfed by only lies, it is hard to change their stoned mindset, making them into a slave of
others.