Fictional History

Before reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie we had to make power points on Chairman Mao that we would present to our class. The powerpoint on the history of Mao's re-education program was confusing to me at first because I did not quite understand what the re-education program was about. All I knew was that the program was created to keep China in a peaceful state. Now that I am two-thirds done with reading this book I have gotten a better understanding of what the re-education camps were like through the perspective of the narrator and his best friend, Luo. It gave me a broader view on how the program was really like and how it had changed many peoples lives. Sijie shows how Chairman Mao's goals for the program did not go as planned due to the fact that the narrator and Luo found a way to bring Western influences to their village through the books they stole from Four-Eyes. The novel increased my understanding of Mao's program because it shows how strict the camps were about any reactionary ideas and how they were against the spread of Western influences, leading them to discipline anyone who would not abide with their rules.