Review of Revolution Is Not A Dinner Party

"Revolution Is Not A Dinner Party" was a very interesting book to read. It was different than other books I have read. I knew that at some point in time China had been communist, but I had no idea about the communist revolution, how it took place and what exactly happened until I did some research and read the book.

Along with Ling I was confused when Comrade Li began to do some heinous acts against all these innocent people. I wasn't surprised that he turned out to be part of the Red Guards, but instead I was surprised at what looked like his two-faced character. The moment people came in to search Ling's house I knew something was wrong and whatever or whoever was coming was not going to be very nice.

The reasons behind the revolution that they seem to give in the book, like "building a better China" I thought were ridiculous considering the acts of these revolutionaries. They did horrible things to high class people because according to them they were bourgeois, I had never heard of that word before. but once I looked it up I found out that it means that they are middle/high class people who are seen as materialistic and that exploit the working class. This to me made me angry; just because people have degrees and are able to live well because of their hard work and education doesn't mean that they are mean people that exploit the working class. And it definitely doesn't mean that they should be tortured.

The Red Guards and Chairman Mao are people who don't have a heart. They tried to brainwash people into thinking that he would bring China a better future. They are people who are selfish and dominating. The communist revolution wasn't because they wanted to give China a better future by balancing out the social classes and rationing everything to achieve that, the reason behind these kinds of acts only have one explanation. They try to make it seem as if what they want is everyone to be equal and for no one to be above anyone, but in reality all they want it power. They want to ration and control what people do and how much they earn so that they can benefit from it all.

Like in the book when Ling went to the market with her mother, there were boxes with names on them and all of them had meat and other necessities that the rest of the population needed, but couldn't have. And what names were on those boxes? They had names of Comrades and Chairman Mao. They tortured people considered "high class" for being materialistic, selfish, and exploiting the lower class, yet they started to do the same by having privileges they were taking away from others. Their words and their actions didn't connect.

Although most of the books we have read in class have stirred up some mixed feelings of anger, melancholy, and hatred I really enjoyed reading this book. Reading these books have showed me of all the things that have happened or are currently happening in our world that we have been to ignorant to know. It not only has opened up my mind to read of such things, but because they are written behind the lens of someone who has experienced it, it has made me connect on a much more personal level. Most of the time you can read or hear about it on the news, but you don't hear much of the personal stories  of people who experienced these tragedies. To conclude my review, I know that the book ends happily with Ling reunited with both her parents, but I wonder what were the odds of that happening and how many happy endings there actually were during the revolution?