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Chapter 6: The Sound of Drums and Gongs
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
A “propaganda wall” sits at the entrance to Ji-li’s street. Each time the Party declares a new campaign, a new poster goes up on the propaganda wall. The most recent is a copy of a popular painting depicting a young Chairman Mao on his way to organize striking mine workers at Anyuan. Ji-li loves the beautiful portrait and its rich symbolism. Every time she looks at it, she feels inspired to follow her Beloved Leader anywhere.
The existence of the propaganda wall confirms the ubiquity of Party messages in Ji-li’s world. Her discovery of the new poster suggests that she—and others in her neighborhood—consult it regularly. She describes a popular painting of Chairman Mao from the Cultural Revolution era, and her reaction shows that it achieves its goal of manipulating her emotions in favor of the Chairman.
Themes
Twice each day, the group of neighborhood residents who have been identified as belonging to the Five Black Categories (landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, criminals, and rightists) gather at the propaganda wall under the watchful eyes of Six-Fingers for “Morning Repentance” and “Evening Report.” Six-Fingers now leads the Neighborhood Dictatorship Group. The black citizens—who include Ji-li’s Aunt Xi-wen—bow before the portrait of young Mao, clutching their copies of The Precious Red Book and offering wishes for his long life. Then, individually, they confess their crimes. Afterward, they sweep the alleys and streets of the neighborhood. For the first few days, Six-Fingers lets neighborhood boys throw rocks at them while they work. Then, the rocks stop—but the jeers and taunts don’t.
Earlier, Song Po-po hinted that Six-Fingers involved himself in revolutionary activities not so much because of his ideals but because of his envy and dislike of those who had more material comforts than he did. The glee with which he presides over the public humiliation of his neighbors—and encourages the neighborhood boys to join him—corroborates her claims. The new rituals seem to serve little purpose other than humiliating the accused and warning everyone else of the penalties for failure to conform to social expectations. Their punishment thus becomes a piece of propaganda itself.
Themes
No one can talk about anything but the Five Black Categories—who belongs to them and why—and the Neighborhood Dictatorship Group, which keeps track of Black Categories members and reports their activities to the Neighborhood Party Committee. One evening, the Dictatorship Group catches a counterrevolutionary in action. A person pulling old da-zi-bao off the walls for recycling accidentally tore a newspaper hanging beneath one, ripping a picture of Chairman Mao in half. Six-Fingers and his gang detained the man immediately.
Ji-li describes an active local gossip and surveillance scene that captures the inescapable fear and paranoia of the era. So too does the example of the “counterrevolutionary” who accidentally tore a newspaper. If people can be detained for accidents, or if the definitions of nebulous categories like “revisionist” or “rightist” keep changing, then no one is safe. Ji-li glancingly mentions the relationship between the Neighborhood Dictatorship Group and the Neighborhood Party Committee, but it’s worth elaborating on this historical point. Internal conflicts within the Chinese Communist Party led Chairman Mao to declare the Cultural Revolution, and he used it as a tool to disempower and cast out anyone whom he felt was insufficiently loyal . As Six-Fingers and the Dictatorship Group gain power, they reenact this dynamic on a local level.
Themes
The next notable item on the propaganda wall is a poster announcing a talk from Jia Hong-yu, a famous local Red Guard. Ji-li and Ji-yong go and listen with rapt attention as Hong-yu describes defying her parents’ wishes and sneaking out of town when Chairman Mao invited Red Guards to establish revolutionary ties in Beijing. So many comrades crammed into the train that she had to crawl in a window and sit on the floor, but she refused to allow such small difficulties to stop her. In Beijing, she slept on the floor of a converted office and took her meals outside. But she was so happy to be there, she never felt uncomfortable, even when it rained.
Jia Hong-yu’s story presents a model for young revolutionaries like Ji-li to follow. Her story is, in effect, yet another piece of propaganda demonstrating the absolute allegiance that Mao and the Party encourage—and expect—from Chinese society.She proves that she holds Chairman Mao dearer than her parents when she defies their wishes and goes to Beijing. And she relishes being part of something larger than herself; her desire to conform to the Chairman’s expectations and wishes outweighs her need for necessities like shelter.
Themes
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Jia Hong-yu talks about the announcement that Chairman Mao would receive all the Red Guards in Tiananmen Square. She could barely sleep the night before the great event. In the morning, tens of thousands of Red Guards crowded the square, waiting for hours without food or water until Chairman Mao himself appeared, waving to them from atop a platform. Tears glisten on Hong-yu’s cheeks as she describes the joy she felt when Chairman Mao looked right at her. Anyone who sees him, she says, is the happiest person in the world. Ji-li feels jealous—she longs to see Mao in person, too. As Hong-yu finishes her speech, the crowd breaks into cheers of “Long live Chairman Mao!” Ji-li walks home, wishing with all her heart that Chairman Mao will forgive her black class status and let her become a Red Guard someday, too.
Historians are divided on the degree to which Chairman Mao encouraged his personality cult. But Jia Hong-yu’s story—and historical accounts by Red Guard members—confirm that Mao was celebrated as an almost divine figure, especially by the most fervent proponents of the Cultural Revolution. Ji-li falls into thinking of the Chairman as a sort of benevolent deity, too, when she fantasizes about him forgiving her black class status. This shows the degree to which she has internalized narratives about the importance of conforming to Party ideology. Even though her Red Successor classmates humiliated and abused her for her black class status, she still wants to belong to their faction more than anything.
Themes
Old Qian, a stubborn old man who lives near the elementary school, becomes the Red Guards’ next target. His son-in-law was executed as a counterrevolutionary, marking the whole family as members of the Five Black Categories. One day, Ji-yong overhears some Red Guards asking to borrow Qian’s bicycle. He refuses. The Red Guards aren’t used to being refused—especially by members of a so-called black family—and they return the next day to raid his house. Ji-li hears the familiar noise of drums and gongs from the window. A loud argument draws her to the balcony to watch. The Red Guards make Qian kneel on the sharp ridges of a washboard while they carry things to their truck. They barely even allow his wife to bring him a sip of water.
Soon after Jia Hong-yu’s stories stoke Ji-li’s revolutionary fervor, she must once again confront the real brutality unleashed by Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. At this point, people suspect the Jiangs of being Black Category members, although absent official accusations, they maintain a marginally acceptable class status. Old Qian, in contrast, clearly belongs to the Black Categories, as he was implicated first in his son-in-law’s counterrevolutionary views and second in his individualistic and allegedly disrespectful refusal to let the Red Guards bully and boss him around. By failing to conform, he marks himself out for punishment that slides into physical torture.
Themes
The scene makes Ji-li feel sick, especially since it seems so unnecessary. If Qian had just complied with the Red Guards’ request to use the bicycle, she thinks, none of this would be happening. She tries to read, but her knees ache at the thought of the washboard. She feels dizzy when she imagines the sun beating down on Qing’s head. She worries he will get heatstroke, but then she asks herself how she can feel sorry for a counterrevolutionary’s family member. Throughout the afternoon, Ji-li returns to the balcony, watching as Old Qing weakens and finally faints. The flustered Red Guards carry him inside after a brief discussion. Then they load up their truck and drive away.
Ji-li tries to reconcile her discomfort with her trust in the party by blaming Qian for his recalcitrance. Her inability to do so fully contributes to her slow disillusionment with the Cultural Revolution (and by extension, the Party) over the course of the book. Each raid or humiliation Ji-li witnesses hints that her so-called black family might be next. And her own experiences show that compliance doesn’t preclude punishment—Du Hai, Yang Fan, and Yin Lan-lan still bullied her over calling Yi-yi “Pauper” even after she apologized and tried to make amends.
Themes
The next morning on her way to the market, Ji-li finds a gossipy crowd gathered around An Yi’s back door. As she listens to their hushed whisperings, she learns that, after witnessing Old Qian’s painful and humiliating punishment, An Yi’s grandmother killed herself by jumping out the bathroom window. Stunned, Ji-li remembers visiting An Yi’s grandmother just a few days earlier. The old woman grew up under imperial rule in China. She had bound feet and had been married to a wealthy capitalist, but he had died long ago. For as long as Ji-li could remember, An Yi’s grandmother lived with and cared for An Yi’s family. She was like a second grandmother to Ji-li, too.
Painful evidence that the Cultural Revolution is, at its heart, about power and control rather than ideology or socialism or justice continues to mount. The Red Guards ratchet up the pressure to conform by means of public humiliations and visible raids. And many, including An Yi’s grandmother, tried to escape the apparently inevitable torments by suicide. Historical records indicate that hundreds of thousands of people took their own lives during the Cultural Revolution. With a blow so close to home, Ji-li can no longer explain away or ignore the human costs. Unlike Old Qian, she can point to nothing An Yi’s grandmother ever did to deserve the persecution she feared.
Themes
Dying by suicide is a crime because it’s like stealing oneself from the nation. So, An Yi’s family can’t hold a proper funeral. But Ji-li still attends the short memorial at the crematorium. An Yi’s Grandmother’s body lies on a gurney, covered with a sheet. No one speaks. An Yi sobs. Ji-li remembers how her grandmother would carry An Yi, piggyback style, to the hospital when she needed oxygen during an asthma attack. Ji-li wonders what the old woman could have been thinking when she jumped from the window. Did she forget her duties to her family and her country? Didn’t she think about what her death would do to An Yi? A kind but efficient orderly appears to take the body away, warning An Yi and her mother against showing their grief openly. Suicide is a crime, and everyone knows it’s dangerous to align oneself with the Black Categories.
With painful irony, the decision of An Yi’s grandmother to take her own life only further cements her family’s black status. This further illuminates the importance—and inescapability—of a person’s connections. Party ideology treats class as contagion, where one member can poison an entire family or community. In contrast, Ji-li remembers An Yi’s grandmother for who she was as a person—loving, generous, and kind. She struggles to reconcile this person with the one who committed suicide, whom the Party considers a criminal both for her failure to conform to its vision of ideological and personal purity and for her suicide.
Themes
