Red Scarf Girl Quotes

“Her actions remind me that, even under unbearable circumstances, one can still believe in justice. And above all, love.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I thought about my beautiful dreams and wondered if they would drift away just like those lovely soap bubbles.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I was willing to take on the struggle to establish myself in a new country because I knew that was the price I would have to pay for the freedom to think, speak, and write whatever I pleased.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“This is the most frightening lesson of the Cultural Revolution: Without a sound legal system, a small group or even a single person can take control of an entire country. This is as true now as it was then. Thirty”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Many friends have asked me why, after all I went through, I did not hate Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution in those years. The answer is simple: We were all brainwashed.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“My family was too precious to forget, and too rare to replace.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“The newspapers and radio were full of the campaign to “Destroy the Four Olds.” The campaign had been expanded to eliminate personal possessions. “If we do not completely eliminate the roots, the plant will grow back,” we heard. “We must eradicate these relics of the past.… We must not allow the reactionary forces to hoard their treasures.…” And every day we heard the drums and gongs that meant the Red Guards were ransacking the houses of class enemies to find and confiscate their hoarded possessions.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“If I can help Americans to understand China, and the Chinese to learn about the United States, even a little, I will feel very rewarded. I”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“This is the most frightening lesson of the Cultural Revolution: Without a sound legal system, a small group or even a single person can take control of an entire country. This is as true now as it was then.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“To us Chairman Mao was God. He controlled everything we read, everything we heard, and everything we learned in school. We believed everything he said. Naturally, we knew only good things about Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Anything bad had to be the fault of others. Mao was blameless.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“What a terrible man, I thought, worse than a traitor. At least a traitor betrays people by telling the truth. Uncle Zhu tried to save himself by telling lies.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“The poor teachers! Trained in the traditional sciences, they were totally lost when trying to teach us about pigs or paddy fields.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Physics, Chemistry, and Biology had been replaced by Fundamentals of Industry and Agriculture, because of Chairman Mao’s instruction to “combine education with practical experience.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“teachers do not hold bombs or knives, they are still dangerous enemies. They fill us with insidious revisionist ideas. They teach us that scholars are superior to workers. They promote personal ambition by encouraging competition for the highest grades. All these things are intended to change good young socialists into corrupt revisionists. They are invisible knives that are even more dangerous than real knives or guns. For example, a student from Yu-cai High School killed himself because he failed the university entrance examination. Brainwashed by his teachers, he believed his sole aim in life was to enter a famous university and become a scientist—”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I stared at the large sheet of paper spread out in front of me, wondering what to write. It was strange. When I had read the newspaper, I had been enraged by the revisionist educational system that had been poisoning our youth for so many years. But now that I actually had to criticize the teachers who taught us every day, I could not find anything really bad to say about any of them.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I heard the distant whistle of a passing train, and I wished I could get on it and go far away, to a place without struggle meetings, without class status, without confessions.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I realized that although I have adopted a new country, I cannot forget China. I wonder about Chna's present, and I worry about her future. I have realized that despite all my suffereing, I cannot stop loving the country where I was born and raised.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Life was very hard, so hard that I could hardly breathe sometimes.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Anger rose in me. Didn’t they know how hard I’d been working to overcome my family background? Now all my efforts were wasted.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“But we can’t allow personal matters to interfere with revolutionary duties. Especially for an important political assignment like the exhibition.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“No matter what I did and where I went, the Cultural Revolution followed me.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Leniency for confession, severity for resistance! Hand”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Suicide was a crime. It was “alienating oneself from the people,” according to what Chairman Mao said. So”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Chairman Mao taught us that “inner beauty is much more valuable than outward appearance.” How”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Life was very hard, so hard that I could hardly breathe sometimes”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I realized that I hdd my promise to them - to everyone in my family - long ago. I had promised during the days that Grandma and I had hidden in the park; I had promised when I had not testified against Dad; I had promised when I had hidden the letter. I would never do anything to hurt my family and I would do everything I could to take care of them.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“I no longer worried that she was a landlord's wife. She was my grandmother”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“Many friends have asked me why, after all I went through, I did not hate Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution in those years. The answer is simple: We were all brainwashed. To us Chairman Mao was God. He controlled everything we read, everything we heard, and everything we learned in school. We believed everything he said. Naturally, we knew only good things about Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Anything bad had to be the fault of others. Mao was blameless.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“As soon as I said it, I realized that I had made my promise to them—to everyone in my family—long ago. I had promised during the days that Grandma and I had hidden in the park; I had promised when I had not testified against Dad; I had promised when I had hidden the letter. I would never do anything to hurt my family, and I would do everything I could to take care of them. My family was too precious to forget, and too rare to replace.”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl

“That doesn’t mean that you should make up a story about something you never did!” Dad’s voice grew still louder. “So what if I never listened to foreign radio broadcasts? They’ll stop beating me if I confess to it, won’t they? ‘Leniency to those who confess, and severity to those who resist.’ Look at my face, Lao Jiang. I can’t stand it anymore… .”
― Ji-li Jiang, Red Scarf Girl