Red Scarf Girl: Questions 1-8

1. Who are the members of Ji-Li’s family? Describe her family home. What class status does her family belong to? What is the occupation of her father? Mother?

Answer:
Ji-Li's family members: Ji-Li's father, Song-Po-Po(nanny/housekeeper:P.14), Ji-Li's mother, Ji-Yong(younger brother), Ji-yun (younger sister), Ji-Li's grandmother (went to modern university, teacher, help found Ji-Li's primary school:P.14), Little white(cat)
Ji-Li's home: bright and warm and welcoming, appartement in Shanghai, had a french window, mahogany table, high ceilings, burgandy curtains, pots on steps.(P.7) 10 times bigger room than classmates, 100 times brighter, full-sized bathroom.(P.15~16)
Family status/class: Middle class who are doing well. Not super-rich, but well-off.
Family occupation: Both parents are an actor/actress. But the now the mother retired and works in a sports equipment store.(P.13)

2. What is Ji-Li’s life at school like? What special honor is Ji-Li picked for at school? Describe Ji-Li’s parents’ reaction. What does Ji-Li do instead of entering the audition?

Answer:
Ji-Li's school life: She's the student chairman of the whole school and also was an outstanding student (P. 9). She was happy and was always respected, loved, able to excel and expected to succeed (P.1). Ji-Li math test was display as exemplary work (P.3). She was known for being good at martial arts since 2nd grade (P.5). She had a da-dui-zhang badge for student chairman of the whole school (P.9). She was correcting her little sister about her piano practice (P.29).
Special honor: She was picked to do an audition for the Central Liberation Army Arts Academy (P.6)
Parents' reaction: Her dad told her not to do the audition and he was serious about it(P.8). She also saw a pain in her dad's eyes that she had never seen before (P.9). Her dad was worried about the political background investigation (P.9). They send a note principal Long (P.10)
Instead of entering the audition: Ji-Li tried hard not to cry about not going to the audition after talking to teacher Gu and An Yi, she dogged behind a tree so Principal Long and the 2 boys wouldn't see her because she didn't want to talk to anyone right then (P.12)

3. What are the "Four Olds"? Provide some examples of each and explain why they need to be destroyed?What does "prosperity" mean. Why is it considered an old thought?

Answer:
The four olds: Old habits, old customs, old culture, and old ideas are the four olds. (page 21)

Four Olds Examples: An example of old culture were shop names. (page 21) An example of old customs was to wear pointed shoes and pants that could not fit a beer bottle in it. (page 31-33) An example of old ideas is calling an umbrella a yang-san and yang means foreign. An example of old habits are having a housekeeper. (page 36-37)

Why Four Olds need to be destroyed: China would never become a strong socialist country if the four olds are not destroyed. (page 21)

Prosperity: Prosperity means to be successful and wealthy. There is a market called The Great Prosperity Market and the sign had to be destroyed because the word prosperity was in it. (page 21) Mao says that if you are prosperous, than you are bourgeois.

4. What is a xenophile? Why was it bad to be a xenophile in Revolutionary China?

Answer:
Xenophile: A xenophile is anyone who worships anything foreign. (page 34)

Why is it bad to be a xenophile: It was considered four olds to have foreign influence. In the video we saw about China, it said that China had foreign influence in music and dancing but then Mao considered it as four olds and stopped it.

5. What are da-zi-bao? What are being done with them? Who is Jiang Xi-Wen? Why does Ji-Li hang a da-zi-bao on her house.

Answer:
Da-zi-bao: A da-zi-bao is a big poster that criticizes something, or says bad things that some one did and humiliates them. (page 38) The da-zi-bao are being used to critcize the educational system (page 38) and to humiliate people like Ji-Li's aunt Jiang Xi-Wen (page 43-44).

Jiang Xi-Wen: Jiang Xi-Wen was Ji-Li's father's cousin. Ji-Li and some fellow classmates hang a da-zi-bao on her house because she wears make-up which is bourgeois. (page 44-48)

6. Why does Ji-Li stop going to school for a while?

Answer:
No school: Someone writes a da-zi-bao about her and Ji-Li gets a fever. (page 49 and 52)

7. What is a rightist? Use your own words to briefly explain of remolding ones ideology.

Rightist: A member of the conservative party who disagrees with or apposes the communist party. (page 283 glossary)

Remolding ideology: This means to change your beliefs because you made a political mistake. (page 282 glossary) When the boy was finding out if a man had pointed shoes and tight pants andthe man did, the boy saidto remold your ideology. (page 30-33)

8. What did Ji-Li's grandfather do for a living? How does this affect Ji-Li's life?

Ji-Li's Grandfather: Ji-Li's grandfather was a landlord. (page 62)

How is Ji-Li's life affected: Ji-Li could not be a red successor because grandfather was a landlord. (page 58) This was probably the reason that Ji-Li could not be a liberation army dancer. (page 9)