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The Chinese Communist Party identified and persecuted anyone accused of disagreeing with or opposing Party ideology as “rightest.” The biggest purge of these individuals happened during the Antirightist Movement, although people were still condemned as antirightists afterward, during the Cultural Revolution.
Rightist Quotes in Red Scarf Girl
The Red Scarf Girl quotes below are all either spoken by Rightist or refer to Rightist. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4: The Red Successors
Quotes
“My father’s class status…?” I did not see what Du Hai meant at first. “You mean what did my grandfather do? I don’t know. I only know that he died when my father was seven.”
There was a trace of a grin on Du Hai’s face. He stood up lazily and faced the class.
“I know what her grandfather was.” He paused dramatically, sweeping his eyes across the class. “He was a—LANDLORD.”
“Landlord!” The whole class erupted.
“What’s more, her father is a—RIGHTIST.”
“Rightist!” the class was in pandemonium.
I was numb. Landlord! One of the bloodsuckers who exploited the farmers! The number-one enemies, the worst of the “Five Black Categories,” even worse than criminals, or counterrevolutionaries! My grandfather? And Dad, a rightist? One of the reactionary intellectuals who attacked the Party and socialism? No, I could not believe it.
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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 11: Locked Up
Quotes
“You saw your father. He is being remolded through labor. We have evidence that he has committed a serious counterrevolutionary crime.” He paused and fixed me with his eyes. “But he is very stubborn and refuses to confess. And your mother. Humph. She’s another despicable thing!”
“She’s not a thing, she’s a human being,” I wanted to scream, but I knew that I should not provoke him. He could have me arrested, he could never let me see Dad again, he could beat Dad…. I stared at the table.
“You are different from your parents. You were born and raised in New China. You are a child of Chairman Mao. You can choose your own destiny: You can make a clean break with your parents and follow Chairman Mao, and have a bright future; or you can follow your parents and then…you will not come to a good end.”
Chapter 14: The Class Education Exhibit
Quotes
The woman from the theater spoke. “It’s really not such a hard thing to do. The key is your class stance. The daughter of our former Party Secretary resolved to make a clean break with her mother. When she went onstage to condemn her mother, she actually slapped her face. Of course, we don’t mean that you have to slap your father’s face. The point is that as long as you have the correct class stance, it will be easy to testify.” Her voice grated on my ears.
“There is something you can do to prove you are truly Chairman Mao’s child.” Thin-Face spoke again. “I am sure you can tell us some things your father said and did that showed his landlord and rightist mentality.” I stared at the table, but I could feel his eyes boring into me. “What can you tell us?”
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Rightist Term Timeline in Red Scarf Girl
The timeline below shows where the term Rightist appears in Red Scarf Girl. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: The Red Successors
...tells the class that Ji-li’s grandfather was a landlord and that her father is a rightist. He knows all this from his mother, the Neighborhood Party Committee Secretary. Ji-li immediately runs...
(full context)
...remold her ideology” because of it, because only she has a landlord grandfather and a rightist father. When Ji-li asks what her long-dead grandfather has to do with her, Yang Fan...
(full context)
Chapter 7: The Propaganda Wall
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 14: The Class Education Exhibit
...from a landlord family, he refuses to confess the “serious mistakes” he made during the Antirightist Movement. Thin-Face reminds Ji-li that they will still consider her an educable child if she...
(full context)
...she tells them things Dad said or did at home that betrayed his “landlord and rightist mentality.” Weakly at first, then with conviction, Ji-li testifies that her father never said anything...
(full context)
