Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie

Don’t judge a book by its title! When Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress was published in 2000, I wasn’t attracted, I know very little about French literature and to link this French author of the 19th century to a Chinese Seamstress of Mao’s China seemed a bit too far-fetched to me. Yet when an acquaintance whose literary taste I trust recommended the book last month I gave it a go. Two 17-and-18-vear-old boys are sent from the city into a village for re-education, the year is 1971 and the Cultural Revolution still in full swing. They aren’t intellectuals, they only attended middle school where the only subjects were the basics of industry and ...  Read the complete review

In 1968, as part of the Cultural Revolution in China, Mao Tse-tung instigated a programme of 're-education'. Universities were closed, and the children of 'reactionaries' and 'young intellectuals' were sent to work for the peasants in the countryside. Dai Sijie was one of those youngsters sent for 're-education' between 1971 and 1974. He left China in 1984, and has lived and worked (as a filmmaker) in France ever since. Our narrator is the 17-year-old son of two doctors, and along with his friend Luo, 18, who is the son of Chairman Mao's dentist, he is sent to be re-educated by working for peasants ...  Read the complete review