Chapters are represented by number
1-What changes Ji Li's outlook in life?
Why does it have such an impact?
How does life change for the Jiang's after Liberation? What did the Chinese government call "Liberation"?

2--What are the "four olds"?
Using passages from the novel, determine how Ji Li feels about the four olds.
How does this chapter show "the world turned upside down"?
Look on page 27: what were some of Mao's other ideas?
What duty do the student inspectors perform? How old are they? Give an example of them at work.
What is Du Hai like? What is his class status?


3- Whay are the schools closed?
What are da-zi-bao? What importance do they have? How do you see them become personal instead of political?

4-How does class status affect ji Li's life?
How much power do the Red Guards and the Red Sucessors have? Give details from the book.
Who is in control of the school?

5-How are Ji Li's dreams dashed even more in this chapter?

6- What does the sound of the drums and gongs announce?
How does the government try to take more control of the people? Why does clothing cause so much fear?

7-What is the propaganda wall? What do the sayings mean? How is this similar to the book Animal Farm (for those who have read that BRILLIANT book)?
How are the elderly treated in this chapter? Give an example from the book.
Why can't An Yi's grandmother have a funeral?
Why is public opinion becoming more important and feared?

8-How does the revolution hope to get rid of the past?
How is bad class status affecting Ji Li?
How are the searches carried out?

9-How are the Red Guards' activities escalating?
How are the Communists turning on one another?
How are people being treated? Is it justified? Answer specifically.

10- What kind of English does Ji Li learn?
What is political study?
How important is Mao's Little Red Book?
How has Ji Li's attitude toward praise changed? Why?

11-Why is Ji Li's father jailed? What are the Communists trying to do to the famly?

12-Why is the chapter titled "An Educable Child"?

13-Why doesn't Ji Li change her name?
How is Song Po-Po an insipration to Ji Li?

14-The leaders of the study sessions want Ji Li to say that she is whose child? What do they want from her? How does this fit with the bigger picture?

15-Why was Mao's plan to send young people to work on farms a bad idea?

16-Why isn't Ji Li an "educable child" any longer?

17-How did the Cultural Revolution change Ji Li's life?
How has her attitude changed from the beginning of the book?

Epilogue--How did the Chinese people view the Cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao?

The following question should be answered as a fully developed essay.  It carries more weight than the others.  We expect a minimum of one full page and encourage a second to fully answer this question.

Having read this novel, do you see any parallels to life in the U.S. today?  These could be cultural, moral, political, economic, linguistic, familial, or educational.  Cite specific examples and fully explain what you see as the parallel.