Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Essay

designation Balzac and the Little Chinese seamstress author Dai SijieOriginally published in France by Gallimard, 2000English translation publisher Alfred A. KnopfCopyright September 11, 2001Hardcover 208 pagesA novelBalzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a cogent novel that depicts the impact of the Chinese Cultural innovation, proves the magic of horizontal surfacetelling, compares quaint and modern, and tells a romantic delight story between a mint young lady and cardinal metropolis y breakhs.Two boys are sent to a mountain at the age of 17 and 18 during the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1970s for re-education. The narrator, a violin player, and his stovepipe friend Luo both have parents that are doctors and t herefore classed as enemies of the people, which is the belabor subjugateg that can happen to an intellectual. The chance of going home from this outside village 500 kilometers away from their hometown, the big city Chengdu, is less than third in a th ousand.At the mountain Phoenix of the Sky, which is just a poetic way of suggesting its terrifying altitude, they are put into a dramatic art on stilts with a sow underneath in the poorest village perched on a summit. Their re-education consists of working in a blacken mine and carrying buckets of body waste up and down a mountain. With them in another village is an rare friend called Fore-Eyes, because of his glasses. Soon the two discover his unknown handbag that contains a large number of Western belles-lettres translated into Chinese. And when they meet the Little Seamstress, the pleasing mountain girl in need of elaboration, they decide to steal the suitcase.This partly historical novel tells the amusing adventures of a teenager during his re-education in a humorous, and sometimes sarcastic way, with a lot of black humor in between. A funny example is the day of their arrival. When the narrator played a intelligenceata by Mozart on his violin to convince the villager s that it was a musical instrument, not a toy, he had to call his piece Mozart is Thinking of Chairman monoamine oxidase to wipe out the headmans suspicion. Another example is Fore-Eyes collecting authentic kinsfolk songs from the peasants to publish them in a journal, in order to get out of the village he adapted and modified them to communist songs because the text was a little indelicate. The irony behind this is that songs from peasants, whoare the actual communists, had to be altered in order to be published in a communistic journal.The characters are all extremely realistic, whether it is the vigilant, coarse, and harsh village headman who is an ex-opium grower put outed Communist saying that spreading out reactionary stories of western Counts (Count of Monte Cristo) is a crime, regardless of the Counts nationality because our revolution will triumph the humans over, or the poor Old Miller eating pebbles dipped in salt water with his liquor, which he calls jade dumplings with miller sauce. My favored character is the superficial and sycophantic Fore-Eyes with his smiling mask he is the son of a poetess and a writer and therefore also classed three-in-a-thousand. He lives in constant terror of the peasants opinion, hoping that they might give him a chance to go back home Ive got to work, thats what Im here for. At least(prenominal) thats what the headman says, he says.The Cultural Revolution has not only changed Fore-Eyes. Towards the end of 1968, Chairman monoamine oxidase launched a campaign that would leave the country profoundly altered the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Schools and universities were closed and hundred of thousands of young intellectuals were forced to go to the countryside for re-education, substance working with poor peasants to change their bourgeois minds, to have western decadent ideas re-educated out of them. This concur is mavin of the few that personally describe the agony of teenagers at the age of growing up workin g in villages without all culture or civilization, completely blocked from the outside world.The little coal mine already became a threatening word in the two boys vocabulary. Luo once give tongue to I dont know why, only if from the moment we got here Ive had this idea stuck in my head that Im going to die in this mine. As the narrator said, hes heard nothing but new blather slightly patriotism, Communism, ideology and propaganda all his life. Therefore, a suitcase with Western literature that was discovered by chance totally transform him and his friend in a way that being in the city could never have make because any art or literature that is Western were banned for years at that time. So even though they were supposed to be re-educated, they did read something else than Maos Little Red Book, the only adjudge that was allowed to be read.Besides manifesting the impact of the Cultural Revolution, the story reveals the importance of storytelling. early in the book, the narra tor says The only thing Luo was really good at was telling stories. A pleasing talent to be sure, but a marginal one, with little future in it. Modern man has travel beyond the age of the Thousand-and-One-Nights, and modern societies everywhere, whether socialist or capitalist, have done away with the old storytellersmores the pity. The fact is this story is establish on telling stories from revolutionary movies to Western forbidden books and at that certain(p) time and place, storytelling brought culture and civilization.The narrator was completely changed when he opened the thin book of Balzac, realizing that subjects like awakening desire, passion, impulsive action had all been hidden from him. Like he said Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me feel as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives. Somehow, the way he identifies characters and situations that he has never experienced so strongly can be compared to the way this book presents itself through excellent descriptions the reader is led in a world so new, so different, and so impressive.This wonderful story combines ancient and modern, superstition and civilization in a village, demonstrating an entire crease between the two cultures. An interesting scene in the book is that sorceresses who came to bring to Luo from his bout of malaria were fascinated by the story the narrator told. He said I embarked on the strangest performance of my life. In that remote village enclose into a cleft in the mountain where my friend had fallen into a sort of stupor, I sat in the flickering light of an anele lamp and related the North Korean film for the benefit of a comely girl and four ancient sorceresses. Although this book essentially suggests that Western culture is welcomed, the plot hints a drawback. If everyone in China or elsewhere would be educated in a Western way, meaning to leave superstition, religion, customs and maybe even culture and archives behind, what would then the world take in like?The book is not only a story about cultural differences it is also a love story.The Little Seamstress is by far the prettiest girl in the whole region. The moment the narrator and Luo maxim her, the beauty of this simple, kind, and genuine daughter of the tailor fascinated them. The narrator asked Luo whether he was in love with her ornot, and he replied Shes not civilized, at least not enough for me The story deals with teaching a mountain girl (who is now Luos girlfriend) by telling her Western stories about love and passion. At the same time, it deals a lot with friendship, because the narrator is also in love with the Little Seamstress, who isnt aware of that. He calls himself her secret agent when he goes to treasure the Little Seamstress from other admirers following Luos wish when he was asleep(p) for a month.He teaches the Little Seamstress and helps her at her daily work, but wasnt supposed to show any kind of affection or jealousy. That is unbowed friendsh ip, in other words. In the end, the story takes a surprising turn with the Little Seamstress leaving them with Balzacs words A womans beauty is a treasure beyond price.After all, it is a very powerful and convincing book that allows readers to think about this dark and ugly period of Chinese history and at the same time see how hope and optimism never vanishes in times of despair, fear and loneliness, or any kind of terrible situations one might get in.