China under Communism

During the 20th century, China became the People's Republic of China under the rule of Mao Zedong, the revolutionary who broke China from its original, dynastical, imperial roots. Under him, many reforms of him, most notably the demotion of intellectuals and the rise of the poor. In all of Chinese history, most of the population are peasants. When Mao took hold of China and established a communist state, he closed down many universities and made young students go to re-education. With a promotion of peasants, he sent students to re-education villages, the program being the way to learn from the peasant.

Twenty-four years after the death of Mao, Dai Sijie wrote a fictional novel called Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. The story follows the narrator and his friend Luo as they go through the re-education process. Though they have been educated, they have only passed middle school, and are still very naive. However, this intelligence goes over all of the peasants. With re-education being an emphasis to escape from urban life (and most importantly, Western influence), Luo and the narrator rebel, bringing urban technology and eventually getting ahold of Western literature, one of them being Balzac's Ursule Mirouet, which was illegal. From this restriction of education, urban life, and Western influence, I see how Dai Sijie has let me understand how much it sucked to a [forced] participant of the re-education program. Though I could learn this from historical accounts, I find it much more enjoyable from a historical fiction novel as it keeps in focus more. With me, I pay attention better if the book is more story than fact. For example, I really enjoyed the movie American Sniper, the movie starring Bradley Cooper of Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. history (160 confirmed kills), who was a Navy SEAL and took four tours in Iraq. I ended up reading his autobiography, and I was actually bored of it. It was fascinating at some points, as he almost loses his humanity by the end of his third tour, but all around boring (but I do recommend it). If a fictional book took place in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule, and was much like Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, I most likely will be more interested with that than I was with American Sniper. It's just a difference between intrigue and boredom.