nerd teacher [books] reviewed Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang
Requires some knowledge background.
3 stars
This book is immensely interesting and provides a much-needed perspective from people who were living during the Cultural Revolution in China. There is still a lot that needs to be expounded, and this is a great resource for anyone interested in starting to learn about it.
My biggest problem is that, if I didn't have the historical and cultural context, I wouldn't understand a lot; there are a lot of assumptions that are made of the audience, and I feel like there are a significant number of people who would use the stereotypes in their head to fill in the gaps. Maybe the stereotypes could prove useful, but I feel like that lends itself to misinterpreting the author's intention of her memoir. She really should've included more context to make it clear to the audience what is happening; there were points where it should've been made more obvious that there …
This book is immensely interesting and provides a much-needed perspective from people who were living during the Cultural Revolution in China. There is still a lot that needs to be expounded, and this is a great resource for anyone interested in starting to learn about it.
My biggest problem is that, if I didn't have the historical and cultural context, I wouldn't understand a lot; there are a lot of assumptions that are made of the audience, and I feel like there are a significant number of people who would use the stereotypes in their head to fill in the gaps. Maybe the stereotypes could prove useful, but I feel like that lends itself to misinterpreting the author's intention of her memoir. She really should've included more context to make it clear to the audience what is happening; there were points where it should've been made more obvious that there were multiple power-struggles taking place and that certain people were being harmed as a result.
But it is still a pretty good read.
