Re-eduction+after+the+Cultural+Revolution

"Towards the end of 1968, the Great Helmsman of China's Revolution, Chairman Mao, launched a campaign that would leave the country profoundly altered. The universities were closed and all the 'young intellectuals,' meaning boys and girls who had graduated from high school, were sent to the countryside to be 're-educated by the poor peasants.' ( Some years later this unprecedented idea inspired another revolutionary leader in Asia, Cambodian this time, to undertake an even more ambitious and radical plan: he banished the entire population of the capital, old and young alike, 'to the countryside.') (Sijie 6).

The two main characters in the story are sent to the countryside to be re-educated because their parents are intellectuals. They are sent away from their homes and families in the city to the countryside. There they must work in the fields and mines and learn about manual labor. Books and other items that might make them smarter or more knowledgeable are taken away from them and forbidden as is done for all books that are about "unfit" topics all throughout China. There were several jobs stated in the book that the boys in re-education had to do. One of the jobs was that they had to carry buckets up the mountain on their backs which were filled with either animal or human waste. These buckets had a tendency to splash and spill. This caused the waste to drip down the boys backs. Another job that people would do was plough with a buffalo. The buffaloes had no care about the people and would step on their toes or whip them with their tails. The third job that was talked about in the novel was working in the coal mine. People would work in the coal mine completely naked letting the dust get into every crevice of their skin. The darkness day after day would cause people to think that they were losing their minds and were going to die in the mine. Mao Zedong's point of re-education was to try to make sure that he was the smartest and most skilled person in China. He believed that if all of the intellectuals were taught how to act and live like peasants, that they would become peasants and he would be better than them.