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Agency in growing up in troubled times: re-presenting the Chinese Cultural Revolution in contemporary international youth literature

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Abstract

Historically, literature for children and youth has been used as an effective tool to express utopian visions and dissemination of official ideologies. Youth literature is also revealing of ways that adults construe and construct childhood, influencing values, beliefs and images they wish to inculcate in young readers. This paper attempts to critically analyze contemporary international youth literature representing coming-of-age experiences during the Cultural Revolution by new immigrant Chinese writers. It explores why this significant political event has such a prevalent presence in contemporary English youth literature, how the Cultural Revolution has been represented in general, and how young people are portrayed in books addressing trauma, subjectivity, and different forms of personal agency. These eloquent narratives not only promote a point of view to interpret history in a given way, but also serve as instruments of political socialization and powerful agents of social change, essential for the development of adolescents and for the endorsement of democracy. Writing coming-of-age narratives is not only a lyrical elegy of exploring the catastrophic effects of historical events upon young people, but also a reminder to the world that the cataclysms of history cannot be forgotten and the historical lessons must be passed on to the later generations.

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Acknowledgements

I'm grateful to the anonymous reviewer(s) for their constructive feedback and comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Funding

This study was supported by the Project of Discipline Innovation and Advancement (PODIA)-Foreign Language Education Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (2020SYLZDXM011), Beijing, China; Special Funding on the Research of Chinese Foreign Language Textbooks (ZGWYJCYJ2020503).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, No. 94 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Lina Sun

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  1. Lina Sun
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Correspondence to Lina Sun.

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Appendix: Contemporary International Youth Literature Representing the Cultural Revolution

Appendix: Contemporary International Youth Literature Representing the Cultural Revolution

  • Chen, D. (2004). China’s son: Growing up in the Cultural Revolution. Laurel Leaf.

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  • Guo, Y. (2008). Little leap forward: A boy in Beijing. Barefoot Books.

  • Jiang, J. (1998). Red scarf girl: A memoir of the Cultural Revolution. HarperCollins.

  • Kwong, A. (2020). One bright moon. HarperCollins.

  • Liang, H, & Shapiro, J. (1984). Son of the revolution. Vintage.

  • Li, M. Y. (2008). Snow falling in spring: Coming of age in China during the Cultural Revolution. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR).

  • Li, C. X. (2011). Mao’s last dancer. Walker Books for Young Readers.

  • Min, A. (2002). Wild ginger: A novel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

  • Niu, N. (2001). No tears for Mao: Growing up in the Cultural Revolution. Academy Chicago Publishers.

  • Ye, T. X. (2008). My name is Number 4: A true story from the Cultural Revolution. St. Martin’s Griffin.

  • Yu, C. (2005). Little green: Growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books.

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Sun, L. Agency in growing up in troubled times: re-presenting the Chinese Cultural Revolution in contemporary international youth literature. Neohelicon 50, 363–382 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-022-00640-2

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