Communism-Balzac & The Little Chinese Seamstress

6 Pages 1441 Words

Communism is a collectivist system of government in which the whole of the country is worth more than the individual. Throughout history the spread of communism was feared, and often contained as best possible by western civilization's ever popular capitalist system of government. Much literature throughout history has touched upon the communist ideals, and often been set in communist countries. One such piece of literature is Dai Sijie's, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. The story of, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, is tale of two boys account of living rural communist China where they are drastically programed to think and live a different life as a result of the communist movement. Within the story, the author emphasizes what is called re-education, which is a practice of the communist movement in which, "intellectuals," of the country are taught to think in and live in the communist manifesto. The intellectuals of the country were hated by the communists because they were not afraid to think on their own, individually which took away from the collective nature of this particular system of government and compromised its success. As a result to ensure the success of communism, intellectuals were re-educated to think like communists and act like communists. Although Dai Sijie's account of communist China made for an interesting story, it failed to meet my expectations due to the fact it did not present a detailed view of the communist re-education campaign instituted in that period of time, but instead focused on the romance Luo and the Chinese seamstress.
From what was gathered from this particular tale set within communist China, the main reason why communists hated intellectuals, and therefore instituted re-education, was due to the fear that the people would not take part in being a communist nation. This idea was drawn from the relationship of Luo and the Chinese seamstress. Luo, a young Chinese city ...