Re-education, a practice in Communist China where urban youth are sent to rural villages to reconnect with the ways of their ancestors and create a a broader working class, may seem like a harmless system. However, rehabilitation, to some extent, is useless. Ironically, urban youth going to rural villages to become one with the land ended up instilling their knowledge in the villagers, the opposite of the goal of re-education. Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress explains the irony of the re-education system in Communist China, as the two main characters, Luo and an unnamed narrator, end up changing the values ​​of the villagers more than themselves. In the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, Luo and the narrator, during the process of rehabilitation, transform the villagers to become more civilized by manipulating them and introducing them to Western technology and culture , thus expressing the irony of rehabilitation. education system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay During their rehabilitation, the two boys manipulate the villagers to satisfy themselves, changing the villagers more than themselves and ironically destroying the fundamental principle of rehabilitation. When Luo and the narrator first arrive in their village, they bring an alarm clock, which the leader then begins to use to tell the time and tell the workers when to start their day and begin work. However, Luo and the narrator sometimes don't want to work as early or as late as usual, so they change the clock hands to manipulate the time. The narrator states, “by the end, we had changed the position of the hands so many times that we had no idea of ​​the real time” (Sijie 15). The clock dictated the lives of the villagers, as the leader used it to determine when they started and stopped working. When the narrator and Luo manipulate the hands of the clock, which have become so integrated into the lives of the workers, they manipulate and change the villagers to satisfy themselves. Working in rural villages is part of the communist ideal, so when the boys present this clock, which the villagers use, and then manipulate it to control their work hours, they express the irony of communist re-education. system. Luo and the narrator manipulate the villagers and the labor system to satisfy their own wants and needs, thereby defeating the purpose of Communist China's re-education system. Luo even expresses a desire to civilize the workers, especially his girlfriend, the Little Chinese Seamstress. Luo, while speaking to the narrator, explains how he wants to manipulate the little Chinese seamstress to become more civilized. He said: “With these books, I will transform the Little Seamstress. She will never again be a simple mountain girl” (Sijie 100). Luo expresses an obvious desire to manipulate the seamstress through the books. Saying "she will never be a simple mountain girl again", he explains that his main goal is to civilize the little Chinese seamstress, because he wants her to become more than just a mountain girl and he will succeed in this. by reading books, a symbol of modernity, for her, thus making her civilized. Luo manipulates the seamstress to satisfy himself and achieve his goal of civilizing her, showing the irony of the re-education system. The Little Chinese Seamstress is a perfect definition of the rural aspects of the mountains. Thus, when Luo attempts, and succeeds, to civilize her, we see that therehabilitation system is unnecessarily ironic, as is a symbol of rurality. be manipulated to the satisfaction of a city youth to become civilized. The villagers are, in addition to being manipulated by the two boys, introduced to new technologies, which has led the villagers to change more than the boys. Luo and the narrator also bring new and unknown technologies and ideas to the village where they stay, changing the villagers through the introduction to innovation. Since the city youth are already exposed to these civilized things, they are not as affected as the villagers. The narrator and especially Luo have a gift for storytelling, and they bring civilized Western stories to the village by recounting the plots of the films. The director appreciates these interpretations and says: “'I'll send you to see another film. You will be paid as if you had worked in the fields” (Sijie 20). Luo and the narrator constantly tell the stories from these films, bringing new ideas to the villages. Considering that the films are urban works and the two boys bring this piece of civilization to the village, the villagers are transformed through this introduction to innovations. The fact that the director declares that the boys will be paid as if they had worked in the fields shows the irony of the re-education system. Instead of working in the fields and getting used to the land and the ways of their ancestors, the boys watch movies in a civilized town and bring them to the villagers, which is the opposite of re-education. It's also worth noting that the headmaster is willing to send these boys to bring some civilization to the rural village. The villagers seem eager to learn about urban technologies and ideas, which sparks the idea that people are always striving to learn and innovate, thus making civilization inevitable. The clock, which symbolizes modernity, is a technological element that supports this idea of ​​the rural villagers' desire to learn civilization and which in turn expresses the irony of the re-education system. When the narrator and Luo bring the clock to the village, they are “surprised to see how much the alarm clock has captured the imagination of the peasants… Everyone came to look at the clock” (Sijie 14). The two boys are already exposed to this technology before coming to the village, and they bring this symbol of civilization with them. The villagers are exposed to new technologies, and they rejoice, the alarm clock takes hold of their imagination, and they use it, because they all come to check the clock. Luo and the narrator bring in new civilized technology and, in turn, through the villagers using these innovations, the villagers become more civilized themselves, adapting to the ways of the civilized people rather than the city youth adapting to the rural ways. The goal of re-education is not for the villagers to become one with civilization, but for the urban youth to become one with the earth, which is exactly the opposite of what happens to the narrator and to Luo. The villagers in this novel are exposed to new technologies thanks to the city's youth, thus making them more civilized and expressing the irony of the re-education system. In addition to the introduction of new technologies, the boys also introduce Western culture. When the narrator and Luo are open to forbidden Western literature and culture during their rehabilitation, they introduce the same to the villagers, changing them through the introduction. of Western culture. When the mountain tailor asks to stay in the narrator and Luo's house during his stay in their village, he asks for a bedtime story..