The Context of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Saloni Dattani

Communism

• Ideals:– A free society

– Elimination of property

– Universalism

– Last stage of society

– Redistribution of hierarchy

• Our impression of it from the novel:– ‘did a lot to temper our resentment towards the former opium growers who, now that

they had been converted into ‘poor peasants’ by the Communist regime, were in charge of our re-education.’ [15]

– ‘Millions of young people had gone before us, and millions would follow.’ [7]

– ‘banished…to the countryside’ [6]

– ‘I noticed three blood spots in his left eye’ [3]

Chairman Mao and the Little Red Book

• What we know of him:– A revolutionary Communist leader

– His social-political programs are widely blamed for famines

– He depended on Chinese peasants

• What we know of the Little Red Book:– An unofficial requirement

– A collection of quotations

• Our impression of him and the book from the novel:– ‘the Great Helsman of China’s Revolution, Chairman Mao,’ [6]

– ‘ a great revolutionary dreamer, wishing to create a new generation’ [6]

– ‘a Tibetan song, which the Chinese had reworded so as to turn it into a glorification of Chairman Mao.’ [17]

Rural China

• Programs enforced:– Village elites were overthrown

– Labels put on families

– Redistribution of income

– Building of communes

• What we know of Rural China from the novel:– The boys were forced to carry buckets of ‘a mixture of excrement and water’ [14]

– ‘the coals [were] burning in a hearth that was hollowed out of the floor’ [3]

– ‘Just about everyone in the village had come to the house on stilts way up on the mountain to witness the arrival of city youths’ [3]

The Cultural Revolution

• Causes:– Criticizing intellectualism

• Events:– Red Guards and the Revolutionary committee

– Beating traitors

– Moving to economic fields

– The Revolutionary committee

– Lin trying to assassinate Mao

– Deng Xiaoping

– Tiananment Incident

• What we know of it from the novel:– ‘launched a campaign that would leave the country profoundly altered.’ [6]

– ‘Was it a ploy to get rid of the Red Guards?’ [6]

– ‘had … to wait for the Cultural Revolution to calm down before the school reopened’ [7]

– ‘Written on the slab were his name and his crime: REACTIONARY.’ [9]

Re-education

• Events:– Government and values of the Cultural Revolution in schools

– Sending of graduates to the countryside

– High-schools closing

• What we know of it from the novel:– ‘banished the entire population … to the countryside’ [6]

– ‘It was hard to see how the two of us could possibly qualify as intellectuals.’ [7]

– ‘All other books were forbidden’ [8]

– ‘Throughout the years of our re-education the house on stilts remained almost entirely unfurnished.’ [13]