Reactionary? Or Just Youngsters?

While reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, I couldn't help but think of one major theme: antigovernment. What is it that makes me think this way? Well you have three characters who all go against their communist government in order to find some excitement in their lives. Being stuck in the village of Phoenix of the Sky, and being under communist rule restricts so much from them. They aren't supposed to have anything of western influence, they aren't even allowed have love lives until they are 25. However, they end up breaking those very important rules as means to escape they realities.

Let's start with the narrator and Luo. At the beginning they were already breaking the rules, playing Mozart to the villagers and lying, telling them that it's some adaptation of some ode to Chairman Mao. When they bribed Four Eyes into giving them a Balzac book out of his collection of western books that he was trying his hardest to hide because anything of western influence is illegal, so much that he was pretty much paranoid all the time. But that's not enough for them. They go back to Four Eye's house and STEAL the rest of his books. Then they bribe the headmaster with fixing his teeth so that he won't report them to the authorities about them telling western stories.

The narrator writes words from Balzac's novel into his jacket in order to have it on him at all times. If that isn't going against the government, which banned any western influence from China, then what is? It's a huge risk for him to do something like this, especially when he lets Luo and the seamstress borrow it. But this is his way of escape. He's trying to hold on to as much excitement as he can in his own way. He also takes a HUGE risk in helping the seamstress get an abortion by bribing the doctor with a western book.

Luo and the seamstress have a very intimate relationship. Their way of escape is running off to the pond and playing the "key game".The fact that they run off with each other all the time is a huge risk because they aren't supposed to be romantic at all. In this communist government, 25 is the age where someone can get married. This implies that being in a sexual relationship is not good because there runs a risk of pregnancy. Being pregnant and unmarried will cause the public to shun a woman, and abortions are illegal. This is exactly what almost happens. The seamstress goes through a huge transformation throughout the novel. From a village girl to a city girl, she undergoes a great influence by Four Eye's books. Other than the fact that she started running off with Luo and taking risks by cliff diving and encountering snakes in the ponds, she cuts her hair and starts to dress more like a city girl. At the end she even leaves the village, leaving Luo after she got the abortion.

To the communist eye, each character can be considered reactionaries because they are breaking the law. But even though they are "acting against the government" and they are aware of it, I don't really think they understood the severity of what they were doing. They were young, and young people take risks. However the theme of anti-government can still be seen and argued if one were to think that they were doing all of this on purpose.