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... 5
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”
During the Cultural revolution, China was characterized by a mass mobilization of urban Chinese youth inaugurated by Mao Zedong , attempting to prevent development of a bureaucratized Soviet style of communism. ... Mao closed schools and encouraged students to join Red Guard units, which persecuted Chinese teachers and intellectuals and enforced Maos cult of personality. ... This was the setting for the book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. ... Like millions of others of Chinese of the time, they were forced to participate in this disastrous social experiment. ... That is, until the two teenagers fall in love with the seamstress, the daughter of a local tailor. ...
However, Four-Eyes, whose the owner of the books, is unwilling to share his treasure, but after Luo and the narrators appetite has been whetted by a sampling of Balzac they will do almost anything to get their hands on the suitcase containing these works. ... So began the daily readings of both Lou and the narrator of books like Cousin Bette, Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo, different books by Balzac and other western writers. They are particularly eager also because not only are they invigorated by the marvels contained in the books, but they see what effect the words can have on others, notably the little Chinese seamstress who lives fairly nearby.
Once the seamstress has become acquainted with Marseilles via Dumass The Count of Monte Cristo, for instance, she entices the village women to take up some strange new fashions incorporating the bell-bottomed trouser and the fleur de lys. And when the boys are sent to watch propaganda films in the next town so they can come back and recount their storylines as a form of evening entertainment, they make a radical departure from the script by adapting the adventures of their favourite French characters, subliminally spreading the gospel according to Balzac throughout the village.
The story ended with the Little Chinese Seamstress leaving the rural place. ... When Lou asked her why she wanted to leave, the Little seamstress replied that she wanted to go to the city.
Approximate Word count = 1723
Approximate Pages = 6.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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