Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang — Read

Who would have believed that our entire educational system was wrong after all? Seventeen years after Liberation, the newspapers told us, our schools were not bringing us up to be good red socialists and communists, as we had thought, but revisionists. We thanked heaven that Chairman Mao had started this Cultural Revolution, and that the Central Committee of the Communist Party had uncovered the mess in our schools. Otherwise we would not even have known that we were in trouble. What a frightening idea! One Monday, all school classes were suspended inde-nitely. All students were directed instead to participate in the movement by writing big posters, da-zi-bao, criticizing the educational system. Rolls of white paper, dozens of brushes, and many bottles of red and black ink were brought into the classrooms. The teachers were nowhere to be seen.

The classrooms buzzed with revolutionary fervor. Students spread large sheets of paper on desks and gathered around, eagerly shouting suggestions. Some roamed the rooms, reading comments aloud over people's shoulders, calling to others. Girls and boys ran outside to put up their da-zi-bao and ran back in to write more. Desks, Ping-Pong tables, and even the noor were taken over for writing da- zi-bao. When the white paper was gone, the students used old newspaper instead. Da-zi-bao were everywhere: in classrooms, along the hallways, and even on the brick walls of the school yard. The row of tall parasol trees that lined the inside of the school yard was festooned with more da-zi-bao, hanging like nowers from the branches. Long ropes strung across the playground were covered with still more da-zi-bao, looking like laundry hung out to dry.