Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
An enchanting literary debut—already an international best-seller. At the height of Mao’s infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for “re-education.” The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of Phoenix mountain, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin—as well as, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. But it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed. From within the hopelessness and terror of one of the darkest passages in human history, Dai Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder of romantic awakening and the magical power of storytelling.
A Study Guide for Dai Sijie's "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress"
A Study Guide for Dai Sijie's "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
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IGCSE KEY NOTES for DAI SIJIE's BALZAC and the LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS - Study Guide
This text is designed for students studying for the CIE World Literature 0408 IGCSE qualification. Although this text cannot be used for coursework in 2018 and 2019, Cambridge confirmed that 'texts that have been set on Paper 3 in previous years are considered suitable for portfolio work if they are no longer included on the Paper 3 set text list'. This was welcome news for all those that love Dai Sijie's writing who want to use it for coursework from 2020 onwards!
Once on a Moonless Night
A young French woman in Peking in the late 1970s interprets between Chinese professors and Bertolucci for his film The Last Emperor. Afterwards, she follows a disgruntled old professor who tells her about a text believed to be taken directly from Buddha s