Ji-Li Jiang

Ji-Li Liang (http://www.breakfastserials.com/1PRODUCT_4Authors_Detail.asp?AuthorID=24)

Ji-Li was born on the Chinese New Year, her parents chose her name carefully, meaning lucky and beautiful, and she was lucky till the fateful year of 1996. She was 12 years old and in the sixth grade, she achieved and excelled in school, then the Cultural Revolution began. Ji-Li was accepted to try and earn a spot in the Central Liberation Army Arts Academy, but her parents refused to let her try to get the spot because they would do an investigation on the family's class status and she was later told that her grandfather had been a landlord, which was considered a horrible occupation in China.

It angered her when she wasn't allowed to be part of the Red Guards because of her past family's mistakes. Due to her low family status, she wasn't able to do many things that could have possibly helped her excel in things and make a better life for herself and maybe the family she may have down the road. School kids were encouraged by the government to write "a da-zi-bao" about teachers, other kids, and even parents. One day there was a da-zi-bao written about her found, it said something saying that the teacher Ke Cheng-li didn't like working-class kids, only the rich and that he gave Ji-Li the highest grades and awarded her with notebooks, the da-zi-bao said that everyone should question what the real relationship between them was.

Soon, Red Guards started to search houses and would destroy or take anything that they considered what resembled the old China. They became very violent to the Chinese citizens and were feared, they struck fear into their hearts. An Yi, Ji-Li's best friend, her grandmother, committed suicide, due to her fear that the Red Guards would come after their family. She jumped from the window. An Yi and her family were not allowed to weep nor mourn for her grandmother's death because of their low family status, they weren't even allowed to provide a proper funeral. Ji-li's father was sent to jail for not confessing to something he didn't even do, leaving her mother, grandmother, and herself to take care of her little brother and sister, Ji-yong and Ji-yun. Ji-Li began to question the ways of the new China and chairman Mao, the new leader of China, and she soon began to rebel.

She left China in 1984. She was thirty years old, no friends, no money, no family, and she knew very little English. She was willing to do this because she knew it was the price to pay for her freedom and well being. She knew she didn't deserve to be left there in the horrid country China had become. Some liked the new China, and others, like Ji-Li, realized that it wasn't right for the country to treat its own citizens the way they were treated.

Ji-Li is considered a hero to me because she had the guts to stand up for what she believed in, even though she was fooled for years that the way they were treated was the right way and that it was the best. She did what she had to do to make her life better, even if it meant loneliness and not having anyone to find comfort in, and to me, that took real courage. She has inspired me, and I hope many others too, to take the chances we need to make a positive change in our lives for ourselves and our families. She is my hero because she was naturally good at heart and had the courage to risk anything to make things better.