Previous
Ji-yong Jiang
Ji-yun Jiang is the sister of Ji-li and Ji-yun and is the youngest of Mom’s and Dad’s children. She is a sensitive child who doesn’t work as hard as Ji-li at school, but she still looks up to her big sister. She likes pretty things, like Grandma’s old silk gowns and other items that are considered Four Olds and bourgeois, but she helps her family to repurpose and destroy incriminating items for safety during the height of the Cultural Revolution. She typically avoids conflict, like when classmates call her a “black whelp” and throw her bag out the window. Eventually, she becomes a schoolteacher in China, a career she continues to pursue when she eventually moves to the United States in the 1980s.
Ji-yun Jiang Quotes in Red Scarf Girl
The Red Scarf Girl quotes below are all either spoken by Ji-yun Jiang or refer to Ji-yun Jiang . 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 1: The Liberation Army Dancer
Quotes
Song Po-po told us that our extended family used to occupy two whole buildings, ten rooms all together. “Then they all moved away, and only your family and your Fourth Aunt’s family were left. Your family only has one room now. It’s just too bad.” She shook her head sadly.
But I didn’t feel that way at all. I loved our top floor room. […] Our room was ten times as big as many of my classmates’ homes, and a hundred times brighter. Best of all, we had a private bathroom, a full-sized room with a sink, a toilet, and a tub. It was almost as large as some families’ entire homes. Many did not have a bathroom at all, or even a flush toilet, and very few had a full-size bathroom that they did not have to share with other families.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Sound of Drums and Gongs
Quotes
“It seems terrible to just cut them all up. Why don’t we just give them to the theater or to the Red Guards?” Ji-yun held a gown up in front of her. She was imagining what it would be like to wear it, I knew.
“The theater doesn’t need them, and it’s too late to turn them in now. The Red Guards would say that we were hiding them and waiting for New China to fall. Besides, even if we did turn them in, the Red Guards would just burn them anyway.” Grandma looked at me and shook her head as she picked up her scissors. “I just couldn’t bear to sell them,” she said sadly. “Even when your father was in college and we needed the money.” She picked up a lovely gold-patterned robe and said softly, “This was a government official’s uniform. I remember my grandfather wearing it.”
Chapter 17: Sweeping
Quotes
The cry jerked out before I knew it. […] “I will take care of both of them. I promise.” 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.
Get the entire Red Scarf Girl LitChart as a printable PDF.
Ji-yun Jiang Quotes in Red Scarf Girl
The Red Scarf Girl quotes below are all either spoken by Ji-yun Jiang or refer to Ji-yun Jiang . 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 1: The Liberation Army Dancer
Quotes
Song Po-po told us that our extended family used to occupy two whole buildings, ten rooms all together. “Then they all moved away, and only your family and your Fourth Aunt’s family were left. Your family only has one room now. It’s just too bad.” She shook her head sadly.
But I didn’t feel that way at all. I loved our top floor room. […] Our room was ten times as big as many of my classmates’ homes, and a hundred times brighter. Best of all, we had a private bathroom, a full-sized room with a sink, a toilet, and a tub. It was almost as large as some families’ entire homes. Many did not have a bathroom at all, or even a flush toilet, and very few had a full-size bathroom that they did not have to share with other families.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: The Sound of Drums and Gongs
Quotes
“It seems terrible to just cut them all up. Why don’t we just give them to the theater or to the Red Guards?” Ji-yun held a gown up in front of her. She was imagining what it would be like to wear it, I knew.
“The theater doesn’t need them, and it’s too late to turn them in now. The Red Guards would say that we were hiding them and waiting for New China to fall. Besides, even if we did turn them in, the Red Guards would just burn them anyway.” Grandma looked at me and shook her head as she picked up her scissors. “I just couldn’t bear to sell them,” she said sadly. “Even when your father was in college and we needed the money.” She picked up a lovely gold-patterned robe and said softly, “This was a government official’s uniform. I remember my grandfather wearing it.”
Chapter 17: Sweeping
Quotes
The cry jerked out before I knew it. […] “I will take care of both of them. I promise.” 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.
