Ji-li Jiang

Ji-li Jiang was born in 1954 and is the author of of the memoir, Red Scarf Girl, as well as The Magical Monkey King. She grew up and lived in Shanghai, China in a large apartment with her family.

Early life

Ji-li Jiang lived in a large apartment with her father Xi-reng, her mother Ying-Chen, her brother Ji-yong, her sister Ji-yun and her grandmother. Her housekeeper, Song Po-Po, also lived with them. Ji-li was a star student until 1966, when Chairman Mao started the Cultural Revolution. When she was 14, her father was falsely accused of listening to foreign radio and was detained and forced to do hard labor by the Chinese government. Ji-Li was humiliated by her peers at school who blamed her for her family's "black", or "anticommunist" past, and prevented her from becoming a Red Successor, a person who will become a Red Guard when they are old enough. When the Revolution ended, Jiang, later followed by most of her family, moved to Hawaii. She then mastered English and wrote Red Scarf Girl, a memoir of her life during the Cultural Revolution.

Adulthood

Jiang graduated from Shanghai Teacher's College and Shanghai University before moving to Hawaii in 1984. She graduated from the University of Hawaii and began working as an operations analyst for a hotel chain. Later on Jiang became a budget director for a healthcare company in Chicago. In 1992, Jiang co-founded East West Exchange, promoting cultural exchange between western countries and China. In 2003, she started a nonprofit organization, Cultural Exchange International to continue and expand the cultural exchanges between the U.S., and Western countries. Ms. Jiang now lives in the San Francisco area. On the back of some the book editions, you will see this:

"Ji-Li Jiang was born in Shanghai, China, in 1954. She graduated from Shanghai Teachers' College and Shanghai University, and was a science teacher before she came to the United States in 1984 (When she was 30) After her graduation from the University of Hawaii, Ms. Jiang worked as an operations analyst for a hotel chain in Hawaii, then as a budget director for a healthcare company in Chicago. In 1992, she started her own company, East West Exchange, to promote cultural exchange between Western countries and China. Ms. Jiang lives in the San Fransisco area. Her memoir, Red Scarf Girl was published in 1998. She is also the author of The Magical Monkey King, a retelling of a traditional Chinese tale about the beginning of the trickster Monkey King's journey."

More information about Ji-Li Jiang, her family, and her life, can be accessed here: http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/novelwise_ms/find/bytitlspdf/redscarfgirl_pdfs/red_s_g_stud_intro.pdf

Red Scarf Girl

Main article: Red Scarf Girl

Red Scarf Girl is an memoir written by Ji-li Jiang about the Cultural Revolution from a "black" family's point-of-view. It depicts her teenage years during the Cultural Revolution, and the humiliation her family suffered because Ji-Li's late grandfather was a landlord, therefore labeling her family "black" (the opposite of "Red", the color of Communism). Red Scarf Girl was published in 1998.

Ji-Li and the Cultural Revolution

Ji-Li's goal was to expand the literature connections between China and the United States. She later states that her release of Red Scarf Girl was to help with these connections.