Spider Eaters: A Memoir

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Recommended: REFLECTION ABOUT cultural revolution in china

The Cultural Revolution began in China in 1966 and lasted until 1976. It was put into effect by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, in order to get rid of all capitalistic influences and traditional culture in the country. This revolution began soon after China started to rapidly industrialize and show symptoms of capitalistic practices. By purging all of old Chinese traditional and cultural elements, Mao believed the nation would benefit and prosper through Communism. While this movement meant to further revolutionize China’s economy and culture, it had the exact opposite effect. The revolution halted the progress China was making towards modernization and harmed the country’s economy significantly. The Cultural Revolution only did harm to China and stopped the prosperity it was gaining from earlier revolutions in 1900’s due to the fear of old culture, restoring capitalism, and counterrevolutionary ideas. The memoir by Rae Yang, Spider Eaters: A Memoir perfectly captures the true nature of the revolution. The destruction of China’s culture, people, and household is portrayed all throughout this memoir. One of the main aspects of the Cultural Revaluation was the formation …show more content…

Yang’s family along with other relatives lived together in Nainai’s house. Nainai was the elder of the family. Yang was truly happy, and other members of the family and enjoyed life in Nainai’s house in their own way (52). However, due to the conflicting principle amongst the household, Father decided to move the family out (56-61). Even after they moved out, Aunty, although not blood related to the family, had to leave due to the demand of the Red Guards calling for all nannies to leave (133-134). She was an essential part of the family and Yang was upset to see her go and her home no longer felt where she belonged. So even Yang returned home a lot less further separating the household

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