In the story “Book War” by Wang Ping it talks about a child who grew up in China around the time when Mao Zedong ruled. Mao Zedong forbade all people that lived in China to read anything besides the books that he had made. The author Wang Ping started to read other books like the little mermaid and he found a box of books his mom had buried and read them all. He was careful not to get caught because it could mean a life sentence. His mom eventually found out and burned them all for his safety. Later on he started telling his siblings the stories he had read from the memory he had of them and he feels like he won because he passes his knowledge down.
I personally think that Chairman Mao Zedong banned schools and books because he just wanted the people in his country o learn just what he wanted. He did not want people to start thinking for themselves; on the contrary it seems that he wanted to over control his people.
If I was in the child’s position I probably would have done the same thing because I would be curious of what world lies outside of china. I would want to explore the readings and knowledge of other authors and see the way they think and their view of the world, instead of just Zedong’s thoughts and his strict ruling.
When Ping’s mom burned the books I felt kind of angry at her at first, but then I understood why she did it. She was just looking after the safety of her child and the safety of her family. Just imagine what could have happened if they had gotten caught with the books. It could have possibly been death for them.
My last thought on this story is that even though there are strict rulings in part of the world; there will always be someone finding a way around it. This story is a great example of it. The world’s books are very important to the human race and it may make us who we are. Knowledge is power and we can get knowledge from books.
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