Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang
During Reading Questions
Prologue
1. Why did Ji-li’s parents choose the name “Ji-li”? What does it mean?
2. Why did Ji-li wear a red scarf? (Answer beyond the obvious)
Chapter 1: “The Liberation Army Dancer”
1. What do you think Ji-li’s father means when he tells his daughter that she cannot
audition for the Central Liberation Army Arts Academy because of “political
considerations” and the “family’s background”?
2. Ji-li describes her family as “lucky” and “special.” What evidence does she
provide to support her view of her family as privileged?
Chapter 2: “Destroy the Four Olds!”
1. What were the “Four Olds”? Why did Chairman Mao want the Four Olds to be
destroyed? What examples does Ji-li give of destroying the Four Olds?
2. Humiliation is a theme in this memoir. Find an example of a moment when
someone was being humiliated. Who was being humiliated? By whom?
For what reason?
Chapter 3: “Writing Da-zi-bao”
1. What is a da-zi-bao? What conflict did Ji-li confront when she was asked to write
a da-zi-bao? What did she do?
2. On page 36, Ji-li remarks, “The world had turned upside down.” What had
happened to make Ji-li feel this way?
Chapter 4: “The Red Successors”
1. What is a Red Guard? What is a Red Successor? Why is Ji-li excluded from being
a Red Successor?
2. What do you think “class status” means in China at this time? What types of
people have a desirable class status? What types of people have an undesirable
class status?
Chapter 5: “Graduation”
1. How were school assignments made before the Cultural Revolution? How are they
being made now? What does Ji-li think of the new school assignment system?
2. Why is Ji-li so excited when she hears where she will be going to junior high
school? What changes at the end of the chapter?
Chapter 6: “The Sound of Drums and Gongs”
1. What does “the sound of drums and gongs” represent?
2. What were the Red Guards trying to find when they searched through houses?
Chapter 7: “The Propaganda Wall”
1. What are the Five Black Categories?
2. What is the Precious Red Book and how is it used?
Chapter 8: “A Search in Passing”
1. On page 126, Ji-li shares, “In the three months since the Cultural Revolution had
started, changes had been so constant that I often felt lost.” Identify at least three
changes that Ji-li has experienced since the start of the Cultural Revolution.
2. What is the difference between how Ji-Yong and Ji-li respond when special items
are taken from them? What does this say about their characters?
Chapter 9: “Fate”
1. How does Shan-shan act toward his mother? Why does he act this way?
2. What are some ways that Red Guards scared and humiliated people suspected of
rightist or anti-revolutionary leanings?
Chapter 10: “Junior High School at Last”
1. Describe Ji-li’s first day of school. What disappointed her? What part of Ji-li’s first
day at junior high school in her new classroom does she enjoy the most?
2. Ji-li’s father is forced to attend a political study class. What was the purpose of
political study classes for adults like Ji-li’s father?
Chapter 11: “Locked Up”
1. What was New Year’s Day like before the Cultural Revolution, according to Ji-li?
What is it like now?
2. A dilemma is when someone has to make a choice between two or more
important values. What dilemmas do Ji-li and members of her family confront in
this section? What values are at odds?
Chapter 12: “An Educable Child”
1. What is the Class Education Exhibition? On what type of projects do the children
work?
2. Chang Hong tells Ji-li, “But we can’t allow personal matters to
interfere with revolutionary duties.” What “personal matter” is she referring to?
Chapter 13: “Half-City Jiangs”
1. Describe the policy of confession promoted by the Red Guards and those in
charge of the Cultural Revolution. Who is asked to confess? About what crimes are
they confessing? What is done to encourage people to confess?
2. At the beginning of this chapter, why does Ji-li want to change her name?
What makes her change her mind?
Chapter 14: “The Class Education Exhibition”
1. After Ji-li receives praise for her role in the Class Education Exhibition, why is she
replaced by Fang Fang?
2. Ji-li says, “I felt like a small animal that had fallen into a trap, alone and helpless,
and sure that the hunter was coming.” What do you think Ji-li means when she says
this? What is the trap she refers to in this statement? Who is the hunter?
Chapter 15: “The Rice Harvest”
1. Why is it so important for Ji-li’s political life that she work in the countryside for
her summer labor as opposed to a factory?
2. When Bai Shan offers to help Ji-li, how does she respond? Why do you think she
responds this way?
Chapter 16: “The Incriminating Letter”
1. What does the letter say that Ji-li finds on her mother’s bed? Why did her mother
take such a chance writing this letter?
2. What are the consequences for Ji-li’s mother and Grandmother for being labeled
landlords’ wives?
Chapter 17: “Sweeping”
1. Ji-li describes many worries in this chapter. What are a few of the things that she
worries about?
2. At the end of this chapter, Ji-li describes how she has changed over the past two
years since the start of the Cultural Revolution. What are some of the changes
she names?
Epilogue
1. How does Ji-li Jiang explain why so many people went along with the Cultural
Revolution?
2. What important lesson does Ji-li take away from her experience growing up
during the Cultural Revolution?
