Previous
Prologue
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Red Scarf Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conformity vs. Loyalty
Class, Power, and Justice
The Power of Propaganda
Identity and Individualism
Hard Work and Success
Summary
Analysis
Ji-li looks up at the portrait of Chairman Mao that hangs above her classroom blackboard. Underneath, a slogan encourages the students to “Study hard and advance every day.” Ji-li studies hard—her latest perfect math test hangs proudly on a bulletin board nearby. She and her classmates are trying—and failing—to master the two-part harmony of the Young Pioneers’ Anthem. Suddenly, Principal Long appears at the door, accompanied by Comrade Li, a beautiful young female soldier from the People’s Liberation Army. Principal Long asks Ji-li and another student to come with her and the soldier to the gym so Comrade Li can assess their flexibility. Later, Principal Long calls Ji-li and three other students to her office, where she explains that Comrade Li has recruited them to audition for the dance training class at the Central Liberation Arts Academy. Ji-li can barely contain her joy.
At the beginning of her story, Ji-li thinks she understands the rules because she reads them every day in the slogan that adorns the classroom wall: her hard work isn’t just good for her. It also honors the Chinese Communist Party and contributes to China’s greatness as a country. Principal Long singling Ji-li out for the dance audition seems to confirm the slogan: Ji-li’s hard work both in and out of the classroom earns her positive attention from Party officials like Comrade Li. The Young Pioneers is a youth-oriented overseen by the Chinese Communist Party that is the first step towards Party membership for many Chinese children.
Themes
But when Ji-li gets home that night, her family isn’t very excited. Dad and Mom warn her that the Academy has “strict” recruitment requirements. Ji-li isn’t concerned; after all, she has received the Outstanding Student and Excellent Young Pioneer awards and is the student chairman of the entire elementary school. Clearly uncomfortable, Dad says that the issue isn't with Ji-li’s accomplishments, but with the family’s political background. Without going into detail, he says the Liberation Army will never allow her to join its dancing troupe. Ji-li bursts into tears of frustration, but Dad insists it’s safer for the family if he forbids her to audition than for their political history to become common knowledge. Biting her lip, Ji-li goes to bed without another word.
Dad’s warning introduces Ji-li to the much more complicated reality of life, a reality that cheerful classroom slogans fail to capture. What a person does counts, to a degree. But who they are—which is defined by their class status, their wealth, and their family connections—matters more. And although Dad hasn’t gone into detail yet, his worried reaction suggests that something or some things in the family history pose a threat to the social standing of all the Jiangs.
Themes
The next day at school, teachers and classmates slowly learn that Ji-li’s dad forbade her from trying out for the dance troupe. Ji-li feels ashamed. This is the first time she ever felt that she or her family were less than perfect. Dad, a stage actor, is a well-educated, humorous, and loving man. Mom used to be an actor, too, but she quit after she married Dad and had Ji-li, her sister Ji-yong, and her brother Ji-yun. And Ji-li idolizes her grandma, who graduated from high school in 1914, when very few girls were permitted an education. After Liberation—when the Communist Party took over the government—she co-founded the school Ji-li and her siblings now attend. She served as vice-principal there for many years.
Ji-li’s glowing descriptions of her family members’ accomplishments shows how much she loves each one, and how vibrant and unique they all are. It’s also clear that the family values education and hard work and that—for a long time—these have brought the kind of success and reward Ji-li expects. Still, her sense of lost perfection suggests an awareness that the rules for success have changed, even if she doesn’t yet understand how.
Themes
The last member of Ji-li’s family is Song Po-po. Originally the children’s nanny, Song Po-po is like a second grandmother to Ji-li. When the children started going to school, Song Po-po stayed on as the family housekeeper. Although Dad’s extended family used to live in the building, everyone has moved away except Ji-li’s family, her Fourth Aunt, and some cousins. Ji-li loves the family’s one-room apartment, which is bigger and brighter than most of her classmates’. And the best part is that the family has its own private, full-sized bathroom. Dad uses the apartment to host gatherings of his friends, which everyone calls “Jiang’s salons.” Most of these talented friends—Uncle Zhu, Uncle Tian and Aunt Wu, Uncle Fan—work at the theater with him.
As Ji-li introduces her family, she reveals to readers the ways in which she has a lot of privilege relative to her peers—privilege she doesn’t necessarily see. Grandma’s education quietly hints at her family’s wealth, the family employs a housekeeper, and their apartment is larger and nicer than many others. Although she thinks that these differences are smaller than the similarities between herself and her classmates, readers should pay attention because they set the stage for coming conflicts.
Themes
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None of the other students passed the audition, but this doesn’t make Ji-li feel much better. She cannot shake the feeling that the trajectory of her life has changed. For the first time ever, she no longer feels confident that she can achieve her dreams. She used to think that she could be anything she wanted to be: a doctor, an architect, an actress. Now she isn’t sure. One day, on the way home from school, she watches a boy blowing big, beautiful soap bubbles. As they drift away and burst, she feels like her dreams are likewise floating out of her reach.
Dad’s cryptic refusal forces Ji-li to consider that her own efforts may not be enough to guarantee her success. In hinting at this painful truth, he begins to prepare her for the reality of life under Chairman Mao’s Communist Party: the path to success lies in conformity and obedience, and even these qualities do not guarantee it. The soap bubbles reinforce this idea metaphorically. Ji-li sees them as her fragile, out-of-reach dreams. But their very nature, however, suggests conformity—each bubble differs little from the rest. And even this does not preserve them in the end.
Themes
