Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel Paperback – October 29, 2002

And the problem? Why do so very few people read any serious works? And why do even a smaller subset of those read some old “fusty” classic? Like sex, if it is “forbidden,” it only heightens one’s interest.Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966. It was his response to the failure of his “Great Leap Forward,” which he commenced in 1958, in the hopes of rapidly industrializing the country, and featured, in part, Chinese peasants attempting to make steel in their backyards. The Cultural Revolution attempted to rid the society of bourgeois and foreign influences, and this included Western literature, such as that written by Honoré de Balzac. The author of this work, Dai Sijie, would live through this very difficult period. So would I! But, fortunately, outside China, and I remember the news reports as being very sketchy as to what was truly transpiring in the country. Dai Sijie provides confirmation that it was a very unpleasant time with society in a self-destructive mode, with enemies under every proverbial bed. Hum. Other societies have also been there. Dai Sijie would eventually be permitted to immigrate to France, in 1984.The novel opens in 1971. Luo is 18. The unnamed narrator is 17. Both have been uprooted from their homes in Chengdu, a city of four million people, which is the capital of Szechuan province, with a population of 100 million. They have been sent to a very remote mountain village, high on Phoenix of the Sky Mountain, which is accessible only by foot, for “re-education,” since they have been identified as members of the bourgeois class. Luo’s father is a dentist, and had worked on “the Great Helmsman of the Revolution” himself, Chairman Mao. That connection did not save him from a graphically described public humiliation in the stadium. The narrator’s parents are intellectuals of sort, teachers, and hence the (perhaps) one way ticket to Phoenix of the Sky Mountain. When they arrive, they are carrying a violin. The peasants have never seen one before, and are prepared to destroy it. Luo plays a sonata on it. Quick thinking, by calling the musical piece “Mozart is thinking of Chairman Mao” saved the instrument.It is a re-education, or, at least a different education. One of their assigned tasks is to carry the human and animal fertilizer (a/k/a fecal material) to the fields in baskets on their backs. Despite this, and other unpleasantness, they do manage to “game” the system fairly well, and are soon permitted to go to a neighboring town, see the movie, and provide a narration of it in the evenings to the villagers. In their travels, they meet another son of the bourgeois, aptly named “four-eyes.” They discover his cache of forbidden Western literature (in translation), with Balzac’s works being preeminent. And then there is the matter of love coupled with lust, for the most attractive young women in another village, a young seamstress whose father is one also, and most conveniently travels a lot. Luo wants to use the Western literature to “re-educate” the young seamstress out of her peasant origins. Dai Sijie stirs these elements into a page-turning story.This novel recalled Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which concerned another non-Western culture during a time of oppression, and a few people who would use Western literature as a sanity life-preserver. I felt that Dai Sijie did a much better job with this central theme.‘Tis a shame, because I continue to like the idea of a “re-education” of sorts, more in the form of a highly incentivized form of “national service” whereby, in particular, the elites have a couple of years experiencing how the “deplorables” live. Admittedly, it did not work out very well during the Cultural Revolution, and the concept of “national service” has very little traction among the hustling elites who would be resentful of any break in their career moves, which would include reading Balzac.For Dai Sijie experience, and tales from the Cultural Revolution, with its positive side-effect of instilling a deep appreciation for the classics, 5-stars.

The Chinese cultural revolution, battles of lust and love, and the ultimate depiction of the absolute transforming power of literature left me asking no other question than: what masterpiece did I just read? Blending the plots of struggle under communist rule, and the careful endeavors to learn under a suppressing government, Dai Sijie is able to craft a story that equates the struggle of living under the tyrannical reign of Mao Zedong, while mixing the themes of friendship and literature.Falling victim to the down to the countryside movement, the narrator and his best friend Luo are forced to relocate to a remote mountain village, where they encounter the Little Seamstress. Sijie’s depiction of an “uncultured” young Chinese girl who eventually comes to the realization of her infinite potential drives the book to themes of independence, trust, and self reliance.However, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress wouldn’t be complete with only a plot of societal rebellion under a Communist rule. Luo makes it his goal to educate the uncultured Little Chinese Seamstress, ultimately hoping to give her a more profound sense of independence. Stringing together a series of thoughtful and surprising scenes, from their recent possession of books, the boys and the Little Seamstress quickly find themselves presented with possibilities they never knew existed.Making allies with “Four-Eyes'', one of the few youths selected to live in the city, the boys dangerously obtain a copy of Urusle Miroet. However, their quest to educate and impress the Little Seamstress through literary knowledge, as well as their desire to rebel against the dominating CCP doesn’t even come close to an end here. Encouraged by the Little Seamstress, the group steals the books Four-Eyes has in a hidden suitcase, ultimately casting a series of suspenseful scenes, all falling under the prominent theme of rebellion.The novel’s pages then darken, following the narrator’s realization that Luo has impregnated the Little Seamstress. Knowing that abortion is illegal and that the little Seamstress cannot receive help from a midwife, the novel shifts the reader’s view to fear, doubt, and anger. Sijie’s choice to include this subplot circles to the prominent historical themes of this book, while also offering readers a more specific view of the utter autocracy that possessed China. Even though the description of the narrator’s optimism is encouraging, the totalitarian setting in China remains fully represented nonetheless. By incorporating a tyrannical government into the novel, the predictable prince and pregnant princess story is immediately demolished, leaving readers a remaining thirty pages of surprising and unpredictable scenes.The book then resumes its theme of independence with the Little Seamstress abruptly leaving the seemingly inescapable village to have a life in the city. Knowing that a nuanced level of culture and education now resides with the Little Seamstress, she discerns that her potential is being limited by her life on the mountain. While impacted on an emotional and educational level from her acquisition of books, it is ultimately Luo and the narrator’s appreciation of the Little Seamstress that leads her to the revelation that her beauty is something of great value. Ironically it is Luo’s desperate efforts to “culture” the Little Seamstress that become the reason she leaves the mountain, ultimately stunning readers on one final note.While this novel can be viewed from both moral and psychological standpoints, by casting three characters whose lives are controlled by the Chinese Government, Sijie makes an undying attempt to provide readers a view of the more dominant historical components of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. For anyone who has even the slightest amount of interest in Chinese culture, a story of friendship crossed with love, or the totalitarian government run by Mao Zedong, this book will not disappoint.

This book is a quick and beautiful read, detailing a brief span in the life of two Chinese youths who have been sent to a remote village to be "re-educated." The boys discover Western literature and the reader sees the almost magical effect it has on these two boys' lives and the no less profound effect it has on the object of their affections, the Little Seamstress.The story is told almost entirely from the perspective of the unnamed narrator except for the pivotal moment in the story, which is told from the perspective of the multiple participants in the scene. The ending is a bit unexpected, but then again, given the liberating power of literature, it is not a total surprise that Little Seamstress undergoes a metamorphosis and leaves her cocoon. As heartbreaking as it is for the boys, if she had stayed where she was it would be almost like a betrayal to the liberating ideas she learned through Balzac.Sijie blends humor, romance, and beauty together to create a book that is unforgettable and impossible to put down. It is lamentable how short-sighted and misguided China's "Cultural Revolution" was, and it is amazing that Sijie could spin this touching of a tale from that hard and unforgiving period. "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" is a must read.