Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang — Read

Right at the entrance to our alley, where you could not help noticing it, stood the propaganda wall. It was tall and wide, covering the whole end of one building and looming over the street. Every time a new campaign started, a picture would be painted on it to promote the campaign's message. When I was little, the wail had been covered with a picture of a woman dressed in a cook's white uniform and white hat, and holding a large tray of food. The slogan beneath the picture had been ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL. That was when the government was encouraging families to eat at neighborhood canteens to reduce housework and allow women to work outside the family. Right before the Cultural Revolution, the picture had been of a huge mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion, with a tiny big-nosed American trembling in the corner. MASTER NUCLEAR WEAPONS, SCARE THE AMERICAN BARBARIANS, the slogan said.

Now the wall was being painted again. After a few weeks a beautiful copy of the popular painting Mao Ze-dong on His Way to Anyuan appeared in our alley. I had always loved this painting and the story behind it. When he was a young man, our beloved leader, Chairman Mao, had risked his life to go to the mines of Anyuan by himself to establish a revolutionary base there.