A CHINESE LIFE Li, K., & Otie, P

A CHINESE LIFE Li, K., & Otie, P. (2012). A Chinese life. (E. Gauvin, Trans.). London, United Kingdom: SelfMadeHero. Publisher’s Page: http://www.selfmadehero.com/title.php?isbn=97 81906838553&edition_id=210 Amazon’s Page: http://www.amazon.com/A-Chinese-Life-Philippe- Otie/dp/B00BZCA3UO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1 369735412&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Chinese+Life GoodReads Reviews: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588689- a-chinese-life HDFS 892 ~ Tara Popp ~ Michigan State University Book Background This is a graphic novel-memoir of Li Kunwu, a Chinese man from Yunnan Province. He and a French diplomat and writer, Philippe Otie, teamed up to create this book that spans five decades of Li’s life. This memoir was originally published in French. The book is divided into three parts. Book I: The Time of the Father The first book starts in 1950, with the meeting of Li’s parents in Yunnan province. Li’s father is 25, and Li’s mother is 17. Li himself was born in 1955, and he and his little sister are raised in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. As they were growing up, they were taught to revere Mao Zedong. In 1958, the Great Leap Forward campaign began, and readers see through Li’s eyes of how his countrymen turned their homes into barren wasteland as they did a “backyard Industrial Revolution” to catch up with the British and the Americans. Schoolchildren even contributed to this revolution by killing mosquitoes, catching rats, and scaring off birds out of their crops. Not only were their lands getting damaged, but folklores and customs of old China were becoming forbidden as the Chinese tried to become “modern”. This continued into the 1960s and 1970s where Chinese people destroyed their own ancient cultures, artifacts, and architectures. Despite the citizens’ enthusiasm, they could not escape the Great Famine in 1959 to 1961, where millions of people died. Book I: The Time of the Father (cont.) In 1966, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution began, right around when Li entered secondary school. The Little Red Book became the “Bible” of this revolution as Li and his friends recited and memorized the book’s content and brought about changes in their communities. The youth went to restaurants and told the owners their menus had to change because it was too bourgeoisie; Li drew examples of hair styles that were allowed for salons; the teachers were even shamed and forced to march around with poster boards defaming them. The behavior the youth exhibited during this revolution was almost cult-like in nature. One youth even pinned a Mao Zedong pin on his chest (literally!!!), and said that Mao Zedong is always with him in his heart. Bottom line, these youth grew up without “authority”, and their educational achievements suffered greatly. Book II: The Time of the Party In 1976, Mao Zedong passed away, and the Gang of Four, who were the ones affecting the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, were removed from politics. While these changes occurred, Li was serving in the Chinese Army, where he had joined at 17, and he brought his drawing skills to draw propaganda artworks. Li’s other goal was to become a party member in the Chinese Communist Party. Obtaining membership is really difficult, with only 3.6% of Chinese population being party members in 1977 and 5.85% in 2011. Eventually, Li becomes a party member, and he leaves the army to work at Yunnan Ribao (Yunnan Newspaper). Meanwhile, the “bourgeoisie” lifestyle is coming back into the daily lives of the people who had shunned them not long ago. One such example – dancing is something Li and his peers try. This part ends with the death of Li’s father. Book III: The Time of Money This part focuses on showing how China is becoming more modern and more capitalistic compared to previous generations. Through Li’s eyes, still a comic artist for Yunnan Ribao , topics such as China’s “One-Child Policy” and academic pressure on youth come up. Li even sees how two poor couples scrounging for junk become successful restaurant owners. Li hosts his first international art show in France. Recommended for Youth Development Professionals (YDPs) I bought this book on a whim because I was intrigued by the fact that this was a graphic novel, and I am glad I did. This book introduced me to a lot about modern Chinese history. Until reading this, I had never heard of the Great Leap Forward or the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Those two eras alone has show me how influential they are to contemporary China, and how understanding history can help someone like me understand a country like China. The first two parts were the most fascinating for me as I got to see how young children and youth grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and how emerging adults like Li transitioned into adulthood in the 1970s. The last part confused me the most, and while it did show me contemporary China, I was rather lost with Li’s adventure with a water mogul and some snooker hall dealing friend and a massage parlor. I do not deny that the book may be biased, and some of the events may not be 100% accurate, but despite these issues, the fact that we get to see an ordinary man’s life through his drawings and narratives is much more haunting and fulfilling than say reading a newspaper article. Therefore, I do recommend this book to others interested in China and its mid-twentieth century history, and how it affects contemporary China. Final Thoughts: North Korea??? Lastly, this may be presumptuous of me to think and say, but while I was reading Li’s life as a child growing up with Communistic propaganda, I could not help but wonder if this is what it is like in current North Korea. This is mainly speculation on my part, but based on what I read in Li’s memoir and based on what media has shown us about North Korea, the similarities linger in my mind as I compare and contrast Mao Zedong and the Kim family, the Great Famine and the starving people in North Korea, and the propagandistic views against the Western world in both nations, and so on and so forth..

Load more