A novel about the Cultural Revolution and more…

A novel about the Cultural Revolution and more… • In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals" to the countryside, two teenage boys are sent to live on the remote and unforgiving mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky.

The narrator and his best friend Luo are considered dangerous intellectuals and forced to spend their days carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain to fertilize the fields.

But when they bargain their way into obtaining a forbidden Balzac novel from their friend Four Eyes, a new world opens up to them. • Through Balzac, the narrator discovers "awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden" [p. 57].

Luo and the narrator plot to steal Four Eyes' suitcase full of books, both for their own pleasure and to transform the seamstress from a simple peasant into a sophisticated woman.

Part historical novel, part fable, part love story, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a testament to the transformative power of literature.

The Cultural Revolution • Cultural Revolution, 1966–76, mass mobilization of urban Chinese youth inaugurated by Mao Zedong in an attempt to prevent the development of a Soviet style of Communism.

Mao closed schools and encouraged students to join Red Guard units, which denunciated and persecuted Chinese teachers and intellectuals, engaged in widespread book burnings, and facilitated mass relocations. • Little Red Guards take part in Volunteer work on a Sunday in a Beijing Park in 1979.

The criticism of party officials and intellectuals turned violent, and the Red Guard split into factions. • Torture became common, and it is estimated that a million died in the ensuing purges and related incidents. • The Cultural Revolution also caused economic disruption; industrial production dropped by 12% from 1966 to 1968.

Chairman Mao • Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung (mou dzŭ-doong) 1893–1976, founded the Communist People's Republic of China.

Of Hunanese peasant stock, Mao was trained in Chinese classics and later received a modern education. • As a young man, he observed oppressive social conditions, becoming one of the original members of the Chinese Communist party.

Urged and aided by his wife Jiang Qing, Mao declared the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. • The stated goal was to root out so-called capitalist and imperialist elements that had supposedly infiltrated China and return to the values of the Communist revolution. • The Cultural Revolution continued until 1976, when Mao Zedong died.

Burning of books and religious artifacts was a common sight during the Cultural Revolution

Dai Sijie, the author Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp during the Cultural Revolution. • Much like the two young men in the story, Sijie was re-educated between the years of 1971 and 1974. • During those years he spent time working in a camp in a rural part of the Sichuan province.

After his re-education, Dai Sijie completed high school and university in China. As a student, he focused his studies on art history. • Sijie became a filmmaker and novelist who has lived and worked in France since 1984. His first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, was an overnight sensation; it spent twenty-three weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. • He currently lives in Paris and writes in French.

A novel about the Cultural Revolution and more…