Little Green : Growing Up During the Chinese Cultural Revolution
- Book Review,
by Chun Yu
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–Xiao Qing, or Little Green, was born at the very beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and when she turned 10, Chairman Mao died. Because her father worked in the city before he was sent to the countryside for re-education and her mother taught first in a country school and later in the city, Little Green and her two siblings lived much of their younger years with their grandmother. This memoir, written as poetry, chronicles her daily life and reveals her perceptions of the world. Her story is revealed in snippets, much the way one remembers scenes from the distant past. The earlier poems reflect the emotions and fears of a young child while the later poems show an increasing awareness of the meaning of what is taking place. While poetry is an excellent vehicle for a memoir of this sort, the verse itself is uneven in quality. The author is at her best when describing life in the country where many of her depictions of the natural world are lyrical and full of beauty. The form works less well in the more narrative parts, where the poetry is not far removed from prose. Ji-Li Jiang's Red Scarf Girl (HarperCollins, 1997) and Da Chen's China's Son (Delacorte, 2001) also tell the story of young people living through this era. What makes Little Green slightly different is the younger age of the protagonist and the immediacy of the experience provided by the poetry. As such, it complements and extends those more substantial narratives.–Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. Chun Yu was born in China in 1966, the year the Great Cultural Revolution began, and in spare poetry she remembers the first 10 years of her life. True to a child's bewildered viewpoint and augmented by occasional, small black-and-white family photos, Yu gets across the grief at home and the school indoctrination. She feels her father's depression; plays war games against "Foreign Devils"; hears Mama defend her rich, dead parents; and sees intellectuals sent for "reeducation." Telling one person's story is often a compelling way to introduce politics, but because children won't know much of the history here, they may be frustrated by the vignettes, which provide only glimpses of the national terror and upheaval. A brief epilogue will help by providing some context about growing up "half blind to and half aware of the glory of the cause and the cruelty of the reality." So will pairing this with Ki-li Jiang's Red Scarf Girl (1997) or Ange Zhang's Red Land, Yellow River [BKL D 1 04], also about the cultural revolution Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Little Green is a miracle-such beauty emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. A clear-eyed child is born into a surrealistic China, and tells her story. Chun Yu's poetry creates sense and order that readers young and old, Eastern and Western, will appreciate." -Maxine Hong Kingston
Review
"Little Green is a miracle-such beauty emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. A clear-eyed child is born into a surrealistic China, and tells her story. Chun Yu's poetry creates sense and order that readers young and old, Eastern and Western, will appreciate." -Maxine Hong Kingston
Book Description
I was born in a small city near the East Sea, when the Great Cultural Revolution began. My name is Little Green, my country Zhong Guo, the Middle Kingdom. When I was ten years old, our leader had died and the revolution ended. And this is how I remember it. When Chun Yu was born in a small city in China, she was born into a country in revolution. The streets were filled with roaming Red Guards, the walls were covered with slogans, and reeducation meetings were held in all workplaces. Every family faced danger and humiliation, even the youngest children. Shortly after Chun's birth, her beloved father was sent to a peasant village in the countryside to be reeducated in the ways of Chairman Mao. Chun and her brother stayed behind with their mother, who taught in a country middle school where Mao's Little Red Book was a part of every child's education. Chun Yu's young life was witness to a country in turmoil, struggle, and revolution -- the only life she knew. This first-person memoir of a child's view of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is a stunning account of a country in crisis and a testimony to the spirit of the individual -- no matter how young or how innocent.
From the Inside Flap
"Little Green is a miracle-such beauty emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. A clear-eyed child is born into a surrealistic China, and tells her story. Chun Yu's poetry creates sense and order that readers young and old, Eastern and Western, will appreciate." - Maxine Hong Kingston
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