Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution [SCM]

by Jiang, JI-LI Author

(from the back cover) In this autobiographical work, twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything: brains, popularity, and a bright future in Communist China. Then CHina's leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li's world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on Ji-li and her family, forcing them to live in constant fear of arrest. And when her father is imprisoned, Ji-li faces the most difficult decision of her life: denounce him and turn her back on her family, or refuse to testify and sacrifice her future. (Parent Advisory: "damn" is used two or three times; various characters pray to Allah; and there is mention of the daughter's sanitary belt being discovered in a house search.) This edition includes a Q&A with the author and photos of the Jiang family.