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Chang Hong
An Yi is Teacher Wei’s daughter and Ji-li Jiang’s best friend from elementary school. Like Ji-li, An Yi is a good student, although she is shyer and less of a class leader than Ji-li. For this reason, she isn’t invited to audition for Comrade Li or nominated to join the Red Successors. An Yi and Ji-li bond over their mutual suffering during the Cultural Revolution, too—An Yi’s mother is persecuted and subjected to public humiliation in struggle sessions just like Ji-li’s Dad, Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Jiang Xi-wen. She and Ji-li also share a black class status, as both of their long-dead grandfathers were wealthy landlords and businessmen. When An Yi’s grandmother dies by suicide, the community ostracizes the family and targets Teacher Wei even more. Because of her asthma, An Yi escapes rural labor, unlike Chang Hong, Bai Shan, and many other Chinese teenagers, remaining all her life in Shanghai, where she eventually finds work in a factory.
An Yi Quotes in Red Scarf Girl
The Red Scarf Girl quotes below are all either spoken by An Yi or refer to An Yi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3: Writing Da-zi-bao
Quotes
Yin Lan-lan had written, “As one of its victims, I denounce the revisionist education system. Being from a working-class family, I have to do a lot more housework than students from rich families. So I have difficulty passing exams. And I was not allowed to be a Young Pioneer or to participate in school choir. The teachers think only of grades when evaluating a student. They forget that we, the working class, are the masters of our socialist society.”
“Yin Lan-lan? A victim?” I was flabbergasted. Yin Lan-lan had flunked three times. She rarely spoke up in class. When she was asked to answer a question, she would just stand there without saying a word. She was not very bright.
“She failed three courses out of five. How could she blame the teachers for that?” An Yi sneered.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: The Propaganda Wall
Quotes
An Yi’s grandmother was short and skinny and she tottered on her bound feet. Her husband had been a wealthy man, a capitalist. He had owned a dye factory, but he had died a long time ago. For as long as I could remember, An Yi’s grandmother had lived with her only child—An Yi’s mother, Teacher Wei, An Yi’s father, and her elder sister, who was blind. An Yi’s grandmother took care of them all. I had known her so long that I called her Grandma too.
Grandma and her sister always dressed in black. Sometimes I saw them up on the roof of their apartment, smoking a water pipe and talking together in their funny Ningbo accent. Grandma loved to give us treats.
Chapter 9: Fate
Quotes
Du Hai’s mother was standing on a stool, her head lowered to her chest. Two torn shoes, the symbol of immorality, were hung around her neck, along with a sign that read, Sang Hong-Zhen, oppressor of the young, deserves ten thousand deaths. Her disheveled hair dangled around her shocked, gray face. I hardly recognized the once-powerful Neighborhood Party Committee Secretary.
A short man was standing in front of her, shouting […] “She lied to me! She told me Xinjiang was like a flower garden. […] And what did we find when we got there? Nothing! Not a damned thing! […] She fooled us into going to Xinjiang and then didn’t care whether we lived or died. Is that any way to treat a sixteen-year-old boy? While I was sick and begging for my food in Xinjiang, what was she doing here? She was running around with men and having a good time.”
Get the entire Red Scarf Girl LitChart as a printable PDF.
An Yi Quotes in Red Scarf Girl
The Red Scarf Girl quotes below are all either spoken by An Yi or refer to An Yi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3: Writing Da-zi-bao
Quotes
Yin Lan-lan had written, “As one of its victims, I denounce the revisionist education system. Being from a working-class family, I have to do a lot more housework than students from rich families. So I have difficulty passing exams. And I was not allowed to be a Young Pioneer or to participate in school choir. The teachers think only of grades when evaluating a student. They forget that we, the working class, are the masters of our socialist society.”
“Yin Lan-lan? A victim?” I was flabbergasted. Yin Lan-lan had flunked three times. She rarely spoke up in class. When she was asked to answer a question, she would just stand there without saying a word. She was not very bright.
“She failed three courses out of five. How could she blame the teachers for that?” An Yi sneered.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: The Propaganda Wall
Quotes
An Yi’s grandmother was short and skinny and she tottered on her bound feet. Her husband had been a wealthy man, a capitalist. He had owned a dye factory, but he had died a long time ago. For as long as I could remember, An Yi’s grandmother had lived with her only child—An Yi’s mother, Teacher Wei, An Yi’s father, and her elder sister, who was blind. An Yi’s grandmother took care of them all. I had known her so long that I called her Grandma too.
Grandma and her sister always dressed in black. Sometimes I saw them up on the roof of their apartment, smoking a water pipe and talking together in their funny Ningbo accent. Grandma loved to give us treats.
Chapter 9: Fate
Quotes
Du Hai’s mother was standing on a stool, her head lowered to her chest. Two torn shoes, the symbol of immorality, were hung around her neck, along with a sign that read, Sang Hong-Zhen, oppressor of the young, deserves ten thousand deaths. Her disheveled hair dangled around her shocked, gray face. I hardly recognized the once-powerful Neighborhood Party Committee Secretary.
A short man was standing in front of her, shouting […] “She lied to me! She told me Xinjiang was like a flower garden. […] And what did we find when we got there? Nothing! Not a damned thing! […] She fooled us into going to Xinjiang and then didn’t care whether we lived or died. Is that any way to treat a sixteen-year-old boy? While I was sick and begging for my food in Xinjiang, what was she doing here? She was running around with men and having a good time.”
