Response to "Revolution is not a Dinner Party".

As I read this book, it reminded me of Big Trouble in Little China the way nothing ever went right and the story got so outrageous with the revolution and everything that happened around it. BTiLC was the same way, the story kept getting crazier and more unbelievable.  The difference is that Dinner Party is close to the truth of what really happened even with how far-fetched it seemed to me.  A few chapters in, I also made a connection to the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism with communists.  I imagine that many students will not know of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (I didn’t until now) and how insane it really was.  I would like to know how much of this is taught in school.  Maybe it is not gone over as extensively because America has a lot going on at the time, and it is similar to McCarthyism.

After reading all these adolescent books, I ask myself if I would teach the book I read.  Usually I have to think about it, but this one was an automatic yes.  I think about how a kid will accept this book.  I think that it is so outrageous and interesting that for the most part they will want to know what happens next.  This book also seems like it could be a great intro into dystopian literature as it is almost one in itself.  This book is definitely a page turner.  This will be staying in my personal book collection and my repertoire of books to use as a teacher.

The most interesting aspect of the book is how the people began to treat the rich or people who were different.  Being rich or well off is everyone’s goal, but the idea created by Zedong made people band together and accept middle and mostly lower class as the better classes.  While the book didn’t go into it much, I think this is a good idea, but not from the perspective of the well-off citizens.  Creating a society that can band its lower classes together could be a great tool in creating a country.  I imagine that this is how communism is really supposed to work; making everyone equal.  Making everyone equal means that the rich are going to get the shaft when it comes to how they may have been accustomed to living.  Saying that, I still don’t think it was right and something this big should’ve been handled with much more care.  Changing anything is going to create opposition.  Zedong thought everyone was going to go along with the plan I guess.