Ji-li Jiang

web of adjectives describing Ji-li Jiang (Mindmeister and google images (Me and the internet))

I am reading the book Red Scarf Girl about and by Ji-li Jiang. I chose this book because it was about the cultural revolution which interests me as it is about history and racism. This book is an autobiography because Ji-li Jiang is writing about herself. My book is 285 pages long. This book takes place in the year of 1966. It was published in 1997. This was Ji-li Jiang's first of many fantastic books. She also went to 2 universities (Shanghai University and University of Hawaii). One of the things I found most interesting about her is that in 2003, she started a nonprofit organization, Cultural Exchange International to continue and expand the cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Western countries. And finally the last thing about Ji-li Jiang is that she became a budget director for a healthcare company in Chicago after she moved to Hawaii, mastered English and wrote a book.

Ji-li Jiang self portrait (I drew it (I did ))

Ji-li Jiang's dream was to go to a good college. It's all she really wanted to do. She would have been able to as she is smart enough but this was during the Cultural Revolution, which is one of the reasons i chose this book because I wanted to learn about it. Anyway because it was during the Cultural Revolution the teachers had no say in which college their kids went to. The system was that which college they went into was by what neighborhood they lived in. She also wanted to make the national marshal arts team but never even got the chance to try out. When she was younger she always knew what she wanted to do. Unlike me. Her grandfather really influenced her growing up. He died when her father was 7. Her classmates teased her about her grandfather being a landlord. My favourite part of her everyday life is Ji-li Jiang and her friend and sister loved to read every Sunday in the bookstore while her father slept. So as you can see, one of Ji-li Jiang's favourite afterschool activities was reading. She also was in martial arts since she was really little. She was born and raised in Shanghai, China. She went to school there although the educational system was bad so she learnt things differently than we do today.

Ji-li Jiang Speaking (I drew it (I did))

Ji-li Jiang faced many challenges in her life. Hello we are talking about the Cultural Revolution. One of the greatest challenges in my opinion she faced is when her parents got arrested. She had to work in the rice field. Her name was even more shamed than normal. She wanted to change her name. Even worse she wanted to kill herself. She had no reason to live. Her mom gave her a reason though when her mom thought she was going to die so she made Ji-li promise to look after her brother and sister. With that she was able to overcome all of her major challenges. Family was very important to her. She worked in the rice field for them. She was really smart so this helped her understand the true meaning of the Cultural Revolution. She was also very determined. She never let anyone help her which in a way was disappointing but it helped her understand how to be independent. However this was in a way a weakness. She really should have accepted help. Like she could have let a boy help her with her labour but instead she did it herself and was very sore the next day. The saddest thing in this book was when soldiers ransacked her house. They took her scrapbook that she had since she was little. It was her most prized possession. The best moment in Ji-li's life is when she was asked to make a speech. It was inspiring to her and others. It was beautiful and helped her regain some self confidence.

I learned how hard it must have been to have lived during the Cultural Revolution. I was very pleased that in the end she made the right decision. But however i think she should have accepted a little more help in difficult situations. I would ask her if she ever regretted the decisions she made. I also would ask her if she ever saw her friends from the Cultural Revolution again. And finally i would ask her if she was happy. I would not like to be this person's child because i am not very independent and she was a very independent person and i feel like she would expect me to be too. I really liked this book because i felt like it would really give anyone who read it a idea of what life was like during the Cultural Revolution. I learned that right now we are all VERY VERY VERY lucky to have we what we have. We have wonderful families, teachers, friends, etc. I learned from this book to appreciate what i have. I also learned to respect my parents and teachers as they are normally right about everything. I am happy i chose this person to learn about as i learned a lot and the book was really good and interesting but very sad. I would not choose this person to be a role model for me as we are very different but i feel like for people that are more like her she would be a great role model.