About this title: In this novella, set in 1971 China at the height of the Cultural Revolution, two young men have been sent away to the mountains for "reeducation" through hard labor. There they encounter a novel by Balzac--a Western book forbidden under the Mao regime--and it changes their lives and the life of the seamstress with whom one of them falls in love. Among other things, she constructs a brassiere, a piece of lingerie hitherto unknown among the Chinese.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780385722209ISBN:0385722206
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Audience: General/trade. Slightly used, no markings or page damage. A novel for the young reader. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780385722209ISBN:0385722206
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780385722209ISBN:0385722206
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780385722209ISBN:0385722206
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. cover and binding wear and creases, S331. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"When I first open the book and read the first few pages I was shock it was about Cultural Revolution. My first thought was "Oh no...I'll get bored reading this book", but as I continue reading the book I got into it. It was not only about Cultural Revolution, but their life experiences during Cultural Revolution. Ma and Lou's was the main characters in the book and their life experiences are not what I expected it to be. They have to be reeducated in the village and not at the city they were suppose to be. Also, it talks about what are the policies they have to do and not to do during the revolution. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to stand it. They had gone through a lot, but in the end they are still stuck at the village. It is only three of a thousand chances they will be reeducated like others.
Of course we couldn't leave out Little Seamstress; she was a village girl not literate as Ma and Lou's. Ma and Lou's had stolen some book from a friend of them because during the revolution they can't read books other than about Mao's. As a result, they read all the books they have stolen to Little Seamstress; one of the books called "Balzac" inspired her. What inspired her is that a "woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price." (Sijie) She wants to get out of the village and see more of the world rather being stuck in her hometown. If I were her I would do that, but the one thing I wouldn't do is using my friends. Little Seamstress used her friends so she can be more literate and know more about the world. Lou's was her boyfriend, but is a shame that she used him and left him like that after all he had done for her."
"I wasn't enthralled with this one. It's rather crude in places, and I didn't find the story particularly enlightening or compelling. I did think the shenanigans the boys got up to in order to get western novel out of that snotty little brat were pretty funny.
The most value I got out of the book was the description of the way China "retrained" its intellectuals during the cultural revolution. Certainly the narrator felt the program was unfair -- and there's no doubt it was a brutal experience for the uprooted young people. However, I have to wonder if it really was all bad for many of China's intellectuals to get real first-hand experience living and working in poor villages. It certainly wouldn't be such a bad thing for many of the educated elites in our country to get a real taste of what it means to be poor. Come to think of it -- isn't there a reality show about that?
Spending time among the poor definitely changes how you see the world. At least, the time I spent in a 3rd-world country changed the way I see the world. The boys in this novel did not seem very changed by their experience being re-educated, however. They seemed to view the villagers with as much contempt at the end of the novel as they did at the beginning. This novel was all about maintaining culture and elitism, even in difficult surroundings -- not about learning from the people around you. The boys sure didn't seem to learn much. Perhaps the author is a snob. At any rate, the book is not as profound as it could have been."
"Dear Dai Sijie Your book "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" had great morals. I really liked the fact that it connected with history. I don't read history books much because I get bored. This book however kept me interested and had a great story line to it. The romance and friendships in this book are really strong and really enjoyable to read about. This book also taught me history as well. This is another thing I enjoyed. I learned about Mao being the communist leader in china, how people in wealthy families became re-educated, how the schools were shut down, the books were burned, and more about the Cultural Revolution. In this book there are ironies as well. Since all of the higher class, rich people, had to be re-educated or forced to give there land to peasants, what happened when a peasant needed someone like a dentist? (Not all were sent but most) In the book it was ironic when the man in the village was begging Luo to fix his tooth. If most of the dentist were able to keep there job, most likely there would be many more dentist and he wouldn't have been in pain for so long. Great story, I really liked it."
""The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. The two friends are good at storytelling, and the village headman commands them to put on "oral cinema shows" for the villagers, reciting the plots and dialogue of movies. When another city boy leaves the mountains, the friends steal a suitcase full of forbidden books he has been hiding, knowing he will be afraid to call the authorities. Enchanted by the prose of a host of European writers, they dare to tell the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to the village tailor and to read Balzac to his shy and beautiful young daughter. Luo, who adores the Little Seamstress, dreams of transforming her from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover with his foreign tales. He succeeds beyond his expectations, but the result is not what he might have hoped for, and leads to an unexpected, droll and poignant conclusion.""
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