Common Sense Media Review
By Susan Faust
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Stellar memoir of life in communist China has mild violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 7+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In GROWING UP UNDER A RED FLAG: A MEMOIR OF SURVIVING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION, Ying recalls the early years of the Cultural Revolution as slowly escalating restrictions on her and her family's freedoms. Her parents were both doctors and therefore suspect as part of the educated elite. The family navigates the abuses of the Cultural Revolution (e.g., censorship, required dress, reading, and singing, a live-in spy, and arrest), as well as the resulting hardships (e.g., shortages of food and electricity). With an author's note and photos in the back matter, this nonfiction picture book offers opportunities for further exploration.
Is It Any Good?
Both powerful and important, this thoroughly accessible picture book memoir offers a narrowly focused introduction to the excesses of the Cultural Revolution from a child's point of view. Growing Up Under a Red Flag zeroes in on one girl and how she managed to survive those grim years of upheaval and suffering in China and then make a new life in America. It is a superb account: informative, moving, and inspiring. No doubt even younger kids hear China mentioned often in the news. This book will build knowledge, nurture curiosity, and promote wariness. The Cultural Revolution is over, but it offers a cautionary tale about Mao's cult of personality and authoritarian rule, relevant lessons for our modern world.
Older readers may want to check out Compestine's Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (2007), a middle grade novel into which she folds many facts about her life under the Cultural Revolution.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
After reading Growing Up Under a Red Flag: A Memoir of Surviving the Cultural Revolution, families can talk about how the Cultural Revolution changed childhood and family life in China between 1966 and 1976. What changed for Ying? What change would be the hardest for you?
Ying says that she was not a traditional Chinese girl who's quiet and plays the piano—that she was curious and strong-willed. What other character strengths did Ying have? Describe times she showed courage and perseverance. How did these strengths help her get through the hard times described in the book?
The Chinese Cultural Revolution might be new to you. What have you learned, maybe one or two facts? Are picture books effective ways to learn about history? Why, or why not?
The art in this memoir is in a style used for propaganda posters in the communist world, a style called Socialist Realism. Do you know what propaganda is? What do you think about the art? How does it make your feel?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Xinmei Liu
- Genre : Autobiography
- Topics : History
- Character Strengths : Compassion , Courage , Curiosity , Perseverance
- Book type : Non-Fiction
- Publisher : Rocky Pond Books
- Publication date : May 7, 2024
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 6 - 9
- Number of pages : 40
- Available on : Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Award : Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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