Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party

by Ying Chang Compestine

Overview

The summer of 1972, before I turned nine, danger began knocking on doors all over China.

Nine-year-old Ling has a very happy life. Her parents are both dedicated surgeons at the best hospital in Wuhan, and her father teaches her English as they listen to Voice of America every evening on the radio. But when one of Mao's political officers moves into a room in their apartment, Ling begins to witness the gradual disintegration of her world. In an atmosphere of increasing mistrust and hatred, Ling fears for the safety of her neighbors, and soon, for herself and her family. For the next four years, Ling will suffer more horrors than many people face in a lifetime. Will she be able to grow and blossom under the oppressive rule of Chairman Mao? Or will fighting to survive destroy her spirit—and end her life?

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312581497
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	09/29/2009
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	139,571
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Ying Chang Compestine grew up in China and now lives in California with her husband and son. She is the author of the young adult story collection A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, as well as several picture books for children and cookbooks for adults.

Read an Excerpt

Mother picked up a stack of old newspapers from beside the stove. Carefully, she checked every page before laying it around a stool, setting two sheets with Chairman Mao’s pictures on the counter. Months earlier, a nurse had been sent to prison as an anti-Maoist just because she lit her stove with a newspaper page with Mao’s photo.
I noticed a cloth rice sack in the corner next to some herbal medicine bottles and folded clothes. “Why are you packing, Mom?”
Without answering me, she led me to the stool and raked her hard-toothed comb through my hair.
As each stroke yanked at my scalp, pain shot through my mosquito-chewed body. I clenched my teeth, not wanting to cry out. Were we going to a labor camp?
Before knowing that they kept Father in the jail nearby, I had wished they would send us to his camp, wherever it was. Now I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be here in case they ever brought him back to the hospital.
Something cold drizzled through my hair. Within a second, my scalp burned. “I hope this will kill the lice,” Mother whispered. Her ox-bone comb scraped against my raw scalp.
I couldn’t bear any more of the pain and the itching.
“You are hurting me!” I shouted.
Mother stopped.
Stiffening my back, I waited for her to scold me for raising my voice and showing disrespect.
A moment later, she whispered, “Ling, your hair is too thick. The coal oil can’t kill all the lice.” She put down her comb and left the room.
Didn’t she hear me shouting? What was she planning to do now?
Mother returned with a pair of scissors and Father’s razor. “We have to shave your head.”
I jumped off the chair. “No! There must be another way!”
She took a step back. “I don’t know what else to do, Ling. I used up this month’s ration. I even emptied the lamp. If I don’t cut your hair, the lice will spread throughout the apartment.” She tilted the blue oil cup, showing me it was empty. We received two cups of coal oil each month. Without the oil, we’d have to live in the dark for the rest of the month. Now I hated myself for being caught and for falling asleep on the dirty mattress.
Seeing sadness in her eyes, I knew she wouldn’t cut my hair if she could find another way. As far back as I could remember, she had told me that ladies should let their hair grow.
“Do what you must!” I was shaking, trying to hold my despair inside, as I threw myself back into the chair. I didn’t care about being a lady. I wanted to be a mean dragon. More than anything, I wanted to stop the pain and itching. I thought of Chairman Mao’s wife Jiang Qing’s ugly short hair.

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. The title of this book comes from a passage from Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book:

"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gently, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and magnanimous."

Why do you think the author chose to take the title from this passage?

2. Why do you think Chairman Mao was so easily able to turn neighbors against neighbors during the Cultural Revolution?

3. Ling's mother is able to sense early on that things in China are changing (on page 11, Ling notes that her mother had been in a bad mood for almost a year). What early indications does the author give that "danger [is] knocking on doors all over China"?

4. Why does Ling's mother disapprove of so much of her behavior (page 15)? Why do you think Mother seems to Ling "like a proud white rose," which Ling is "afraid to touch because of [the] thorns" (page 40)?

5. A propaganda film is a film produced (often by a government) to convince the viewer of a certain political point or influence the opinions or behavior of people. The Midnight Rooster in Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (page 60) is an example of such a film. What effect did watching this film have on the students at Ling's school? Why do you think Ling did not react to the film in the same way as her classmates?

6. What role does food play in the narrative of Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party? Why do you think food is so central to this book?

7. Ling's understanding of what bourgeois means changes throughout the book. Based on the events of the novel, what did the word mean during China's Cultural Revolution? Why was it bad for a family to be bourgeois?

8. Father chose to stay in China rather than go to America with Dr. Smith to help build a new China. The rally cry of Comarde Li's Red Guard is also for a new China. Why are the two groups (people like Mother and Father and devotees of Chairman Mao) not able to work together to build a new China?

9. When Ling asks Mother why her family needs to hang so many portraits of Mao in their apartment (page 104), Mother explains, "It's like the incense we burn in the summer to keep the mosquitos away." What does she mean?

10. What does the Golden Gate Bridge represent to Ling and her family?

11. Mr. Ji, the antirevolutionary writer Ling and Father save, says "dark clouds have concealed the sun for too long" before he leaves their apartment (page 136). What does he mean?

12. What keeps Ling, Mother, and Father from losing hope like Mr. Ji and the baby doctor did?

13. Why does Father operate on Comrade Sin?

14. A simile is a literary device that uses like or as to compare two things. How does the author of Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party use similes throughought the book?

15. Can you think of a time in America's history when the political atmosphere was like that in Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party? Why do you think people, no matter what country they live in, behave this way?

Editorial Reviews

* Readers should remain rapt by Compestine's storytelling throughout this gripping account of life during China's Cultural Revolution.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Laced in all the right places with humor, fury, fear, resolve and eventual relief, her childlike voice is carefully maintained over the sweep of four years—candid and credible, naive and nuanced.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“This child's-eye view of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is ultimately a tale of survival; lyrical yet gripping, accessible and memorable, it's based on the author's experiences. Certain to inspire discussion about freedom and justice.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Authentic. . . . This semi-autobiographical novel comes alive with the author's rich descriptions of the sights and smells of China at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.” —School Library Journal

“In clipped lyrical sentences, Compestine's first-person narrative sets a naïve child's struggle to survive against betrayal and courage in one neighborhood and also the political panorama of spies and slogans.” —Booklist

“Compestine does a good job giving young YA readers a realistic picture of what that period of history meant to individuals caught in the political nightmare. Certainly those with a Chinese heritage will find the story important to understand their own family history.” —KLIATT

“Beautifully descriptive phrases allow this autobiographical fiction to come alive with the colors of the clothing that are lovingly sewn for Ling, the aromatic preparations of the food that is cooked, and the genuine appreciation of school, work, and valued neighbors. . . . The simple narrative is [refreshing] . . . in its youthful disbelief of the hardships that have befallen them in a changing political situation.” —Voice of Youth Advocates

From the Publisher

Picture book and cookbook author Compestine (The Real Story of Stone Soup) turns to 1972 China as the setting for her first YA novel. Eight-year-old Ling, the spunky daughter of two doctors, lives in Wuhan, China; dreamy and idealistic, she often describes her world in metaphor (about her neighbor, Ling notes, "Mrs. Wong was fragrant and warm like a red peony, which always welcomed visitors"). But the lives of Ling and her family are disrupted when Comrade Li, an officer of the Communist Party, moves into their apartment. Difficulties mount as friends and neighbors disappear, Ling's father is arrested and she endures vicious tormenting at school because of her "bourgeois" background ("At times I wished my family was poor and my parents worked on a vegetable farm... so I could have friends. But if my parents worked on a farm, who would treat their patients?"). Although her father has been jailed, her family starved and their books burned, Ling fights to keep her long hair, a symbol of dignity and individualism to her, though her classmates see it as emblematic of Ling's "privilege." Ling survives on wit, hope and courage until the death of Chairman Mao, after which she and her mother have a joyful reunion with Ling's father. Readers should remain rapt by Compestine's storytelling throughout this gripping account of life during China's Cultural Revolution. Ages 10-up. (Aug.)

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Publishers Weekly

Gr 5 Up -Ling, the daughter of two doctors, has a comfortable life in Wuhan, China. She enjoys her English lessons with her father and the walks they take along the river. Her life changes dramatically when Comrade Li, one of Maoa€™s political officers, moves into her familya€™s apartment in this coming-of-age novel (Holt, 2007) by Ying Chang Compestine. Ling watches helplessly as family friends are taken away by the military. Her father burns old photos and English language books, hoping to protect his family. Each family member keeps up appearances of being a Mao supporter while quietly helping others maintain a reasonable quality of life. Ling matures far beyond her 13 years as she copes with her fathera€™s eventual imprisonment and the constant torment by classmates who have joined the Red Guard. Narrator Jodi Long skillfully moves from naïve Ling who never quite accepts the hardships in her life to belligerent and officious Comrade Li who seems to find pleasure in hurting others. Long easily conveys Linga€™s confusion and bewilderment through her tone and pacing, and powerfully communicates Linga€™s inner strength and determination that life will improve some day. This semi-autobiographical novel comes alive with the authora€™s rich descriptions of the sights and smells of China at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.-Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN

School Library Journal

It's 1972 China, and nine-year-old Ling is the child of two doctors. Life isn't perfect, but, Ling is happy, excels at school and loves studying English with her father. Everything changes with the advent of Chairman Mao's regime. Luxurious items like flowered fabrics and pastries disappear. Anything associated with the West becomes suspect. Then a political watchdog moves into the family's apartment. Their upstairs neighbors, the Wongs, are denounced and arrested; Ling's parents are demoted; and the family lives in fear about the future. School is horrible; Ling becomes the target of the son of a government official and is mocked and beaten because she's seen as bourgeois. When Ling's father saves a political poet, he too is taken into custody, and Ling and her mother must survive alone as further horrors unfold. This child's-eye view of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is ultimately a tale of survival; lyrical yet gripping, accessible and memorable, it's based on the author's experiences. Certain to inspire discussion about freedom and justice. (author's note, historical background) (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

The title belies the content of this riveting fictional account of life in China under Mao. Told from the perspective of Ling, the young daughter of two doctors, the story chronicles her father’s imprisonment, attacks by schoolmates, betrayal by neighbors, and her sometimes painful relationship with her mother. Jodi Long’s portrayal of Mao’s dogmatic and screeching lieutenants is scary, a feeling that is relieved by the father’s gentleness and Ling’s own determination and resourcefulness. Long’s voice sounds older than Ling’s might be at 9 or even 13, when the story ends, but that’s a quibble. Though the packaging says “recommended for ages 12 to 17,” this short production should hold anyone’s attention. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 08 - AudioFile