Red Scarf Girl Timeline by Safwan Siddik

February 24, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 15:50:16 UTC

Ji-li Jiang can't audition to the Arts Academy because her father didn't let her, so nobody would know about their bad family history.

May 16, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 15:54:48 UTC

Cultural Revolution starts

May 25, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 15:57:02 UTC

The first dazibao denouncing a a school leader is made, and this practice spreads to other schools

May, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 15:59:24 UTC

The first organised brigade of Red Guards is formed at Tsinghua University High School

July 16, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:02:08 UTC

72-year-old Chairman Mao goes for a swim, which dispels any rumors of his declining health and reaffirms people that he's a good leader that will stay for a long time

September, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:08:52 UTC

More than 1000 people in Shanghai are either murdered or forced to commit suicide

December, 1968

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:10:54 UTC

Chairman Mao initiates a movement forcing many urban students to move to rural areas and work there

April 10, 1971

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:18:20 UTC

A table tennis team accepts an invitation to join Beijing, which helps US-Chinese relations

April, 1969

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:19:27 UTC

CCP ninth congress makes Lin Biao as Mao’s second-in-charge and successor

September 11, 1971

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:20:49 UTC

Assassination attempts against Mao, allegedly orchestrated by Lin Biao happen

September 13, 1971

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:21:35 UTC

Lin Biao and his family die after their plane crashes after they attempt to flee China

September, 1976

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-09 16:25:47 UTC

The Cultural Revolution slowly lost its momentum in the years before Mao's death on September 9, 1976, and came to a close weeks later.

March 27, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-11 14:39:44 UTC

People start destroying the four olds (old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits). Everyone is very worried they might get searched next, and this leads to people panicking when they see a red guard.

April 30, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-11 14:40:14 UTC

The students start writing Da-Zi-Bao (posters pointing out someone's problems to humiliate them) about people in the educational system, like teachers and students. Someone makes a Da-Zi-Bao about Ji-Li Jiang using facts that aren't true. She feels left out and doesn't want to go to school anymore. Her excitement for the Cultural Revolution wanes.

August 20, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 00:53:44 UTC

An-Yi's (one of Ji-li's friends in elementary school) grandmother gets so scared she'd get beaten to death by the red guards she commited suicide.

July 27, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 00:56:02 UTC

The red guards start aggressively searching people's homes for any four olds and confiscate them. Everyone is scared and wondering about who will get searched next. Ji-li's brother always knows who got searched last, and she is in greater risk of being searched because of her grandfather being a landlord.

Novermber 30, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 00:57:40 UTC

Afraid that their house would get searched by red guards and they would be hurt, Ji-li's grandmother, her, and her siblings stay at the park for long periods of time, where they would be safe.

December 25, 1966

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 00:58:51 UTC

The red guards searched Ji-li's house, ransacking it and destroying destroying many things in the process. Ji-li thinks about how home is supposed to be a place where you're supposed to feel safe, but she doesn't.

January 29, 1967

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 01:00:33 UTC

Ji-li's dad got arrested for listening to a foreign radio when he actually was innocent, and they had no evidence he actually did that. This shows how Mao's cultural revolution uses excessive force to implant his ideals into society.

February 27, 1967

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 01:02:03 UTC

Ji-li's grandmother is punished for being a landlord's wife by having to sweep the streets. It's supposed to discipline and get the anti-communist ideals out of her, even though her husband's dead and she wasn't a landlord.

June 24, 1967

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 01:04:00 UTC

Ji-li has to take care of her whole family because he mom is sick, her grandma's forced to sweep the streets, her dad is in jail, and her siblings are too terrified of what's going to happen to do anything. She still makes sure everything's alright in her family.

December 31, 1967

ssiddik1 — 2024-04-12 01:05:46 UTC

Ji-li now cares about her responsibilities and what she had to do more than her goals in life. She is trying to take care of her family until chairman Mao finally goes so she can finally have peace.