Little Green: Growing Up During the Chinese Cultural Revolution

This memoir told in free verse poetry recounts Chun Yu's childhood experience until the age of 10, when Communist leader Mao died and "the revolution ended." The strongest poems offer an authentic childlike insight into the ideals and contradictions of the cause. When she was four for instance, she describes the propaganda being blared into her grandmother Nainai's home in the country, "The loudspeaker of the radio would keep on talking, / but after a while we didn't hear it anymore"; she recalls her father's hopeful musing about the promises of Communism ("Wouldn't it be nice if all this came true?"); and in a poem called "Political Classes for an Eight-Year-Old," Little Green memorizes teachings from Mao's Red Book, though "I had no idea what this meant." In "Little-Person Books and a Story About the Forest," Chun Yu effectively contrasts the revolutionary tract forced upon young people with the lure of the contraband "children's books confiscated and burned at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution." However, because the poems offer episodic glimpses of Little Green and her family (much like the family photos that accompany the text), readers may feel distanced from the players, including the narrator herself. Still, Chun Yu delivers an unusual and at times memorable perspective on this turbulent period. Ages 10-up. "(Feb.)"

Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Gr 5-8 -Xiao Qing, or Little Green, was born at the very beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and when she turned 10, Chairman Mao died. Because her father worked in the city before he was sent to the countryside for re-education and her mother taught first in a country school and later in the city, Little Green and her two siblings lived much of their younger years with their grandmother. This memoir, written as poetry, chronicles her daily life and reveals her perceptions of the world. Her story is revealed in snippets, much the way one remembers scenes from the distant past. The earlier poems reflect the emotions and fears of a young child while the later poems show an increasing awareness of the meaning of what is taking place. While poetry is an excellent vehicle for a memoir of this sort, the verse itself is uneven in quality. The author is at her best when describing life in the country where many of her depictions of the natural world are lyrical and full of beauty. The form works less well in the more narrative parts, where the poetry is not far removed from prose. Ji-Li Jiang's "Red Scarf Girl" (HarperCollins, 1997) and Da Chen's "China's Son" (Delacorte, 2001) also tell the story of young people living through this era. What makes "Little Green" slightly different is the younger age of the protagonist and the immediacy of the experience provided by the poetry. As such, it complements and extends those more substantial narratives." -Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA" Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

"Little Green is a miracle-such beauty emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. A clear-eyed child is born into a surrealistic China, and tells her story. Chun Yu's poetry creates sense and order that readers young and old, Eastern and Western, will appreciate."
-Maxine Hong Kingston