Nata’s Class Blog

Red Scarf Girl by Jiang Ji-Li

Something that I’ve observed unusual is because in the author’s time, everyone was loyal to Chairman Mao even if it killed them. Jiang Ji-Li was also a unique character in the book, because of the way she had changed since Chairman Mao launched The Cultural Revolution. Her life was once based by her goals but now it is based by her responsibilities. Chang Hong was also an interesting character because of the way she acted as a Red Guard even though her brother was suffering from epilepsy. She never showed that she worried a lot about her brother and put her responsibilities in being a Red Guard and academic study for Chairman Mao before her own personal life. (ADD EXAMPLE/S)

While reading the book, I noticed that since Yin Lan-Lan had changed from being shy to rebellious since Chairman Mao launched his latest mission, destroying the fourolds, the author started to mention her less when Jiang Ji-Li was finishing Elementary School. I think that the author might be trying to give out a message but I still don’t understand her point. And I also wondered why Yin Lan-Lan had such a change in her personality when Destroy the Fourolds was launched. I was also confused why Ji-Li still showed loyalty towards Chairman Mao when he had caused her family and friends to be in trouble. But when I read the epilogue the author had written, I understood better about their society. But other than that, I didn’t have many questions because the book was pretty easy to keep up with.

When I was reading the book, I felt very bad for the people of Communist China, especially when Thin-Face slapped Jiang Ji-Li’s grandmother, yelled at her for being a landlord’s wife, and made her weep the streets of the alleys. It gave me a better understanding of a Communist environment, since I’ve never read about it or seen it. After I stopped reading the book, I felt that Ji-Li was a very brave child to be able to help her family and go through school life with people looking down on her because she came from a family with a bad class status. She had was strong and the courage and determination to live such a harsh life, living with fear and lack of childhood (page 263 “Now my life was defined by my responsibilities. I had promised to take care of my family, and I would renew that promise every day.”) when she was once the perfect student everybody loved to a student who was looked down upon because of her class status when the Cultural Revolution was launched by Chairman Mao.

I think I relate to a bit to Ji-Li currently, not as harsh but just in the fact that life has been harder. There is more school work to be done, more responsibilities, fearing angry protesters, and wearing the right shirt colors to avoid misunderstandings that could between different political groups in Thailand. Whereas in Ji-Li’s world, it was much harder since she had been teased by her classmates about her class status, to the point where she didn’t want to go to school anymore. She also had to deal with her younger brother and sister while her parents were busy and even Grandma sometimes when she had to go to the hospital.

For this week, it was required to search for articles about your region or topic on http://www.topix.com/. I choose an article on my topic, human rights about a girl from a Muslim background killed by her own father for violating their families requirements for clothing in St. Petersburg. The article, Muslim dad has daughter killed for wearing mini-skirts posted by Diana Fasanella on April, 17 2009 is about a Muslim Russian father, Garfar Kirimov (age 46) who hired hit men to shoot his daughter for almost $3,000 for wearing resisting to wear traditional Muslim clothing for women after he had asked her to stop wearing make-up, tight tops, and short skirts. 

In my opinion, Garfar Kirimov is wrong for killing his own daughter (even if she didn’t listen to him) because anyhow, murdering is a crime. His daughter has the right to dress in any way she wants because she has the right to choose for herself, and I think that her father should be more flexible on their religion since his daughter has already grown up in city life. I also believe that Muslim culture should be more flexible on their rules so Garfar’s daughter could’ve chosen another religion (since it seems that she’s unsatisfied with the clothing rules), or Garfar himself could’ve been more easy-going on his daughter so that none of this would’ve happened.

This week we’ve been looking at short stories, folklore, or poems from our assigned regions instead of reading newstories from Global Voices or Topix.  But by reading their literature, we could also learn more about their cultures, values, beliefs, and many others. Ms. Ulster gave websites to help us find literature from our regions (on her class blog here: http://room305.edublogs.org/literature-from-around-the-world/). I chose the Words Without Borders website to literature because it was easiest to work with. After looking through many literature, I found a folktale that I was most interested in.  

The story, The Gypsy Princess and the Nightingale is a folktale about how the gypies where sad and depressed about moving around finding their lost country. This girl, Persiga excluded herself one day to let herself cry her tears of grief when she met a nightingale who gave her advice on how to live life.  

This folktale also shows cultural background since the gypsies had immigrated to Romania (as well as different parts in the world. (This article: http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaHistory/minority-gypsies.htm has more information on gypsies if you are interested). and this article has also made me more interested in the past of Romania and the Romanians. To me, this folktale is saying that you shouldn’t hold on to grief because it will only make you grieve more. 

I won’t be posting another Connected World blog post next week since it’s the Spring Holiday and school’s out. I will probably be posting again after the week past next week, which is basically 2 more weeks.