Hello students!
This blog is for both WHISL classes and for all choice books on the Chinese Cultural Revolution: Wild Swans, Becoming Madame Mao, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Wild Ginger, and Son of the Revolution.
When you post, make sure the title of the post starts with the title of your book (that is how the posts will be sorted). I am giving you carte blanche (absolute freedom) in what you may discuss about your novel. Feel free to comment on other people's posts (even other choice books), ask questions, post pictures or links or songs or videos. I just want to know that you are deeply understanding the book, making connections, and analyzing the characters, symbols, themes, events.
You are required to post two times (Tues 5/19, 5/26)- if they are smaller or less detailed, you may want to post more than that. If you are reading through the book quickly, post quickly...but don't spoil surprises for anyone.
These posts will be worth one check off point each. But really, it is about the authentic conversations that you will have about the book; our thoughts on justice, rebellion, revolution; and the relevance to our lives as Americans in a globalized era.
Enjoy!
Mrs. Bell
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Becoming Madame Mao
ReplyDeleteSo far I have enjoyed this book a lot, and I think it is very interesting to learn about her life during the time of the Chinese cultural revolution. Madame Mao's character is very interesting. I think she is afraid of what may happen if she is too passionate and outgoing towards other people, but at the same time will not be stifled by anyone. Her character has grown so much through all of the hardships she has experienced so far, and she knows how to rely on herself and support herself.
I think that Mao is a symbol for revolution and innovation and change, a leader to bring about hope from the Chinese government and Chiang Kai-shek. Without him, they would not have the motivation or momentum to focus on change.
It is very interesting to compare this revolution with the Civil Rights Movement, for example. I think that although they are vastly different in the methods that they used to bring about change, the were aiming for a similar goal: recognition and rights for a group of people without government interference.
Becoming Madame Mao has been very interesting so far and I have enjoyed it greatly...I am excited to see what happens next in her life.
Wild Swans
ReplyDeleteAlthough this book is intimidatingly large and admittedly slow moving I have found the story pretty interesting thus far. This story tracks the lives of three related women growing up in different times in China. The first part of the story is about the life of the narrator's grandmother. Her grandmother was born into a family that was not very wealthy and were of a lower class. During this time, footbinding was still a prominent practice in the chinese culture, and although her grandmother begged and pledded with her mother not to continue the foot binding her mother refused saying it was her only chance at a prosperous future. The people in China bind women's feet partially because it makes them look vulnerable when tottering around on their tiny feet. This supposably is attractive to men. Anyway the narrator's grandmother becomes the concubine of General Xue which her family considers a splendid arrangement, but she does not like in the slightest. After only a few days of living with her, General Xue leaves for 6 years without communication. After he does return for a few days then leaves again she realizes she is pregnant with his child. After giving birth, Xue's wife attempts to take the child as her own and take it away from its mother, but she plans an escape takes her baby with her and vanishes hundreds of miles away from the Xue household.
Although I have not yet gotten to the cultural revolution part of the novel, I have found some of the cultural traditions facinating. For example at one opint in the novel when the grandmother is visiting Xue's houshold and meeting his wife, the narrator talks about the importance of seating arrangements. The seats in the room are organized into a type of class system so each person must chose how highly esteemed they believe themselves to be. Also, the authority level and position of the wife versus the concubines i found very interesting to read about. this grandmother is a symbol for the traditional china of the past and her daughter and grand daughter are symbols of the evolving China. The theme of class role and social status has run strong throught the first part of this book and the theme of conformity also is echoing thoughout this novel's skeleton.
Becoming Madame Mao
ReplyDeleteSo far, I have enjoyed reading this book. I like Madame Mao's character, and how she is rebellious and likes to march to the beat of her own drum. She has faced many hardships even as a child; she had an abusive father, and her mother abandoned her. Instead of breaking her, these hardships have just made her more dedicated to becoming an opera singer/performer. She is very dedicated to her passion, and does whatever she can, even running away from her grandparent's home to achieve her dream.
It was very disturbing reading about the foot binding. I had heard about it before, but I never realized how gruesome and degrading it was. I believe foot binding is a symbol of women not having freedom, and being under a man's control. Madame Mao was foot bound, but she ripped off the bindings in three weeks. This shows that she wanted her own freedom, and wanted to be her own person. Her grandmother calls her feet "Liberation feet."
I can relate to Madame Mao in this book because she is a performer, and I also enjoy performing. Also, I understand how she strives to get the lead role.
I am interested what Madame Mao will achieve in her adult life.
So I've just started reading Balzac and the Little Seamstress. The first few pages starts out slow but the plot is starting to pick up after the author begins to explain where the two boys are. Luo and his friend who've been sent to a peasent village to be "re-educated" because they're intellectuals. Most of what they're learningentitles agriculture as the Communists have stripped most schools of educational subjects. In order to perserve their knoweledge the two boys are stealing books and constantly change the time of the clock in order to sleep longer or finish the day earlier. Pretty soon though even they lost track of true time.
ReplyDeleteI really hope I can connect with these characters and learn about the chinese revolution. From what I've read I can identify that the author has a good sense of humor and I think I might see some similarties between this book and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
So far this book looks like a good, short read.
So far I really like the book wild ginger. Its interesting to look into what Chinese culture is like since I do not know anything about it. It seems so insane that a dictator and the red army can have control over every aspect of the peoples lives, even the children. In school they constantly study mao and memorize his words about what it means to be a revolutionary. The red gaurd has the power to beat the children along with making the adults to labor if they are suspected of being against mao. Since wild ginger has joined the army she has greatly changed and, like kim said, become brain washed. She is not allowed to even fall in love with someone because it will be considered betraying mao. Im very interested to see if wild ginger is able to ever snap out of it or if maple gets pulled into the army as well. Im hoping wild gingers strong will can over come her struggles.
ReplyDeleteI just finished wild ginger and it turned out to be much different than I originally expected when I began to read it. I was pretty disappointed that wild ginger allowed Maoism to control her so much that it ruined her friendship with maple. Also, the sexual tension between maple evergreen and wild ginger was very strange. Everyone has seen how a guy can tear apart two friends, and I did not expect friends as good at wild ginger and maple to allow that to happen. It also was very unexpected that wild ginger began to like hot pepper after how she had treated her in the beginning of the novel. I had an image of the strong woman wild ginger was in the beginning in my mind through the book, but this deteriorated with her actions. It was insane to see how communism and the Chinese government absolutely ruled peoples lives in every way. The characters developed differently than I would have thought all around. The last part of the novel was also very depressing and dark, however the finale of the book I feel tied it all together perfectly. Over all I enjoyed the book, even though the sequence of events is not what I had expected.
ReplyDelete