WHY THIS BOOK IS GOOD.
First of all, it is well written and readable. The main reason that it is a good read is because it is not overly-dramatic. It forcefully and powerfully tells us the true story of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. Its effectiveness is enhanced because it humanizes and personalizes the reality of the horrors of that time period through the eyes and perspective of a small child. A child’s development should always be in the form of a nurturing and loving environment, filled with considerate and loving adults that contribute to the psycho-social development and formation of a human being.
In this story, the child’s world is shattered by violence and cruelty of a type that is totally foreign to Canadians and Americans in particular. This relatively typical, happy rural village is plunged into chaos and anarchy of a type that destroys the very foundations of a life of normal values in China. And it is not the result of Japanese fascists raining war and terror on a hapless population. It is something far more horrible than that. It is an experience alien to the Western world of North America today – except for those who study history or through personal experience were in the European theatre of WW II. The reader is thrown into a world where the Chinese people are brutalized and terrorized by other Chinese people. This scenario is totally beyond the experience of the Western world as defined by Canada and America. We are blissfully unaware of the horrors of state terrorism. Even the darkest days of the struggle between the pro and anti groups in the Vietnam War years, cannot in any way come close to the horrific brutality of the Cultural Revolution.
The reader is mesmerized by the stark, awful reality of the life of this period. And it is rendered even more effectual and poignant because the story is told through the eyes of a child. A remarkably strong and resilient child who refuses to be destroyed by the horrors she sees on a daily basis. This triumph of the human spirit over the savagery of the Cultural Revolution, and her refusal to lose hope in its face, takes us out of our personal cocoon of security and comfort, and gives the reader a much needed dose of ice cold reality. Since 1945 we have really been sheltered from the cold stark reality of life in the rest of the world. We take so very much for granted – forgetting the sacrifices our ancestors made to give us the warm, safe, secure world that most of us enjoy today, in spite of incidents like 9-11. Those are usually brief, awful brushes with reality that are soon pushed to the back of our busy lives. The book reminds us that the brutal savagery of the story was in reality an endless horror that the Chinese people had to endure for an entire decade. Ten years of state terrorism, daily madness and cruelty, that no one in power lifted a hand to stop. And in spite of the madness, this little girl responded with tenacity and determined will that refused to be intimidated or destroyed by the horror of her childhood. She adamantly refused to abandon HOPE, even when faced with a life of apparent hopelessness. One is reminded of the Polish people, when faced with the might of Leninism, being bolstered by the quiet, strong voice of the Holy Father whispering – “Be Not Afraid.”
In 2014 some of us need to be reminded that the picture we see in the media of a modern Westernized China, living in the security of what we know of as a safe, secure middle class life, is a false picture – a non-existent reality. The Chinese mainland still is in the grip of a brutal reality that gave them the Cultural Revolution. The book really needs an addendum of some kind that reminds the reader that those who created and permitted this decade of madness, are still in power, and that reality threatens us all.
Larry Hyslop, Qinghuangdao, China
Patrick Nohrden 