Unit 4: Xiu-Xiu
If I were a girl of the next generation from Xiu-Xiu's village and had grown up hearing her story from my mother and her friends would I have joined in the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square?
What exactly was the story that I heard from my mother and her generation? If little news reached Xiu-Xiu's home town, did they know what happened to her after she was sent to herd horses?
Did I hear that the girl was a heroic young woman who simply disappeared? Are there speculations about her destiny? Do the women of my village know - or guess - that she was sexually exploited? Do they know because the same thing happened to them? Do they blame Xiu-Xiu? Do they know she died or imagine her living on, far away from home and family? Do they see themselves as heroes and heroines of the Revolution? Do they see themselves as victims of the regime or of bureaucratic blunderers? How have they come to terms with their own loss?
More questions than answers with this one.
What exactly was the story that I heard from my mother and her generation? If little news reached Xiu-Xiu's home town, did they know what happened to her after she was sent to herd horses?
Did I hear that the girl was a heroic young woman who simply disappeared? Are there speculations about her destiny? Do the women of my village know - or guess - that she was sexually exploited? Do they know because the same thing happened to them? Do they blame Xiu-Xiu? Do they know she died or imagine her living on, far away from home and family? Do they see themselves as heroes and heroines of the Revolution? Do they see themselves as victims of the regime or of bureaucratic blunderers? How have they come to terms with their own loss?
More questions than answers with this one.
posted by cafegirl | 2:33 PM
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