Essay - Unlike Many of the Books About Life in Communist China...

Unlike many of the books about life in Communist China, Balzac and ***** Little Chinese Seamstress, written by Dai Sijie is a pl*****yful, fable-like fairytale of a novel. Originally written in French, it seems to plot cues from the strong tradition of fairytales in Europe, but maybe that is what we ***** the West need to believe, that magic ***** miracles and, indeed creative soul, have not left ***** under the Communists.

If one thinks ***** it, Communist China is not at all a b*****d place ***** set a fairytale. It is, in fact, the perfect *****. There are several important elements to a good fairytale. There is, of course, the "once upon a time" element, the involvement of royalty, good and evil characters, magic, a problem, ***** ***** happy ending. The *****ting too,***** very important. ***** heroes and heroines in the story are almost always living under adverse conditions. Snow White, a princess in exile who is basically acting as a maid to seven little dwarfs, Cinderella, ano*****r ********** character who ***** forced in***** slavery by her wicked step-mot*****. Beauty and the Beast, a princess-like character ***** is held captive by a wicked beast. The placement of the hero in a prec*****rious position is par for the *****, ***** wh***** more precarious position can there be for two thouroughly modern young Bourgeoise men placed in a re-education camp ***** Communist China. Oh, the humanity! Whatever will *****y do!

***** country that they live in, the reeducation camp that they ***** working in, are all as much ***** the story as Luo or the little Chinese Seamstress or the narr*****ator. There ***** several reasons why this works. One of the ***** that is works is that ***** world of the Communist China is shrouded in mystery to many of us in the western *****. It is a place that we fear. We fear ***** several reasons, chiefly is the strories of the overn*****t ab*****ing ***** basic human rights of the people. We fear because we do not understand, we fear ***** our own *****ents and government wer taught to ***** it, ***** *****re own parents and *****.

Therefore the broader setting of the novel ***** the ***** we fear ***** most, a fe*****r that ***** almost instinctive because it has been engrained into ***** minds since we were old enough to know what ***** was. It has been cut off ***** our eyes. ***** cannot trust the news that comes from there. It is, in many ways, the beutiful palace that has ***** cut off from the world for a thousand years, it terrifies us.

In yet another way, Communist China fascinates us. It fascinates us beca*****e it scares us. *****ern Europe, the traditional setting for Wester-style ********** *****es not fascinate us anymore. The ***** from Europe is that there are no dragons. The ***** that it ***** open to ***** inspection makes the setting ***** fairytales less interesting.

So this book opens with two ***** men, in theior late