only for the GrAde

In China, we are taught and believe that our ancestors have all of the information that we need. They came before us with ideas and inventions that are good and true, and if we follow these, we will have success too, just like our ancestors. This respect for our ancestors influences how we view the World today. Our textbooks, teachers, and parents encourage us to remember the ancestors’ knowledge and ways. Before the new China founded, people are influenced by this mind set even more. They never think about whether the rules are right or wrong. They do not have the idea to fight until they barely survive in that rule. The landlords and tenants is one of the rules that oppressed and bully Chinese peasants and this story “the white-haired daughter” reflect this fact.

There are three main characters in this story, the father Yang Bailao, the landlords Cheng shiren, and the daughter Xier. Firstly, their names are interestingly reflected or satirized their life and fates. Yang bailao, in Chinese means wasted life and energy to work for others. It reflects his life that he is a tenant and all he worked for years are not really his property. Almost everything he grow needed to give to the landlords. No matter how hard he worked, how many energies he put in the farm, he got nearly nothing. Cheng Shiren, the landlord’s name actually means mercy and kind for every generation. His father and grandfather and so on are clearly landlords too, and they hope him to be a good people and continue this family tree with prosperous. Ridiculously, he was neither a good person nor continue the family glory. He was bad to his tenants and try to rub tenants’ money and daughters. When the Chinese communist party freed the area and the whole country, he lost his lands and properties. Also, I guess he would suffer during the culture revolution a lot. The name of Xier is a sadly irony. It means happy and laugh, but her life was full of sadness and tears. She was a hardworking woman. Even though their life is hard, she always looked at it with hope. However, in that time and in certain circumstances, she was only a property to his father and to the landlord. Her father could use her to pay the debt and the landlord could sell her to the whorehouse when he was done with her. Xier was a woman and at that time women had no human rights at all.

Start with the pamphlets, first three pages shows the basic life circumstances of Yang and Xier. It is winter with snow, but their clothes are ragged. Their furniture is very simple. Readers can find out they are not rich. In the pamphlets, it says Yang run to the mountain to escape his debt. It can confuse people that Yang is not a dishonest person because escape debts is a dishonest and illegal thing in modern society. But at that time, it was a super high interest usury that people cannot bear but they had to accept and borrow. The pamphlets do not explain it comprehensively, probably because everyone knows the social fact when the pamphlets are published.

In the fifth page, Huang wears a robe stamped with flowers and enjoys the feast. It shows how rich he is. When he met Yang, Yang is kneeling before him which inflect their unequal positions. In the seventh page, Huang asks Xier to pay the debt, and his face looked vicious. Comparing with Yang’s pity face, Huang looked more hateful. A man of Huang forced Yang to give his finger print and Yang’s face looked so reluctant and helpless. After signing the forced contract, Yang was crying but Huang and his man are laughing in an unlikeable way. Yang was so helpless. His daughter was the only thing he had, but he could not protect her. It was the life of peasants’ life in the old China. Poor people have nothing and no one can protect them. Laws never protect them. Do not even mention that no one obey laws that can protect them. Fight is never an idea in their mind, until somebody tell them and show them, and it is the Chinese communist party and army teach and show them they can fight and live like a human not a dog.

When Yang goes home, they are having a spring festival meal, dumplings. Again, compare to Huang’s feast, it shows how poor these tenants are. Yang and his neighbors talk about the Chinese communist party and they all hope their army can save them, but at that time they are controlled by other forces. When they talk about the communist party, their faces looked so happy. It is the political goal to publicize the Chinese communist party and remind readers that communist party is the best and only communist party can help the poor.

At the night, Yang killed himself. Xier is devastating but Huang and his men do not care whether Yang is dead or Xier is sad. Huang and his man Mu Renzhi took Xier away. The name of Mu Renzhi is also means mercy and good but what he has done is so evil. Xier is like a toy to be pushed and pulled. She does not have any human rights. She did not think about run at that time. When she was took to Huang’s house, Huang’s mother showed up. She seems like a religious person but what she is wishing is hurting others. Xier crys every day at Huang’s place, her fiancé Wang Dachun and his mother are also very angry and sad. Huang and his men started to look Xier’s friends for troubles. Dachun and his friend fight with Huang’s man. They could not bear it any more. But Huang’s other men came and caught Dachun’s friend. In This two fighting pictures, it looks bright when Huang’s men was beat, but when Dachunand his friends got beat, the color is black and looks very depressing.

When Dachun runs off, Xier is tortured by Huang’s mother. Page 32 is very depressing, Huang’s mother hurts Xier But Xier can do nothing to escape. There’s only Xier’s face with tears and blood. This picture evokes readers’ empathy to Xier and to all the peasants. Also, it implies the Chinese communist party saved all the peasants and protect them from such fate. In the page 35, Huang is like a black demon to Xier. It shows that landlords are demons to tenants. When Huang raped Xier, he looked ugly and evil. Xier was so hopeless. However, when Huang and his mother want to send Xier to whorehouse, Xier finally resisted. She could not fight with those people, but at the first time she is not crying, not waiting, not bearing, she is fighting. She realized that she is a person, not a piece of meat. She runs to the mountain, and hide there for many years. During these long period, she has little to eat but she survived. She shows her strength and tenacious vitality. Xier is like all the peasants in China, they tolerate all the time, but at the end they do not want to tolerate any more. They want to fight and they want blood. The idea of freedom spreads all around and only they unit together and follow the communist party, they can get what they want.

This pamphlet shows how peasants are suppressed in old China and how evil the landlords are. It also shows how unit peasants are. They help each other with everything they can do. When Dachun and his friend fight with Huang’s men and when Wang Ersao help Xier to escape, they are unit together. They deserve to have freedom and human rights. Most importantly, it shows the Chinese communist party is the life saver for all the peasants. The pamphlet’s purpose is to eulogize the Chinese community party, but the story is basically true to history. Tenants lived a rather hard life in the old society and new China change their life totally. Chinese people never ask a lot. They only want to live a peace life, and do not starve. They can tolerate a lot and they can get satisfy easily.