How Movies Affect The Speaker and Luo in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

"One day, having found out when the next month's screening was due at Yong Jing, he [the headman] decided to send Luo and me to watch it...Back home in the village, we were to relate the film from beginning to end to the headman and everyone else, and to make our story last exactly as long as the screen version. We welcomed the challenge, and to be on the safe side, we sat through two screenings in succession"(19).

"By the time we, or rather he [Luo], reached the end of the story, in the allotted time, our audience was ecstatic. 'Next month,' the village headman announced with an imperious smile, 'I shall send you to another film. You will be paid the same as if you had worked in the fields.'"(20).

Sije uses the symbol of movies to demonstrate the effects of independence in the boys' lives. When the headman sends the boys to watch the movies and tell them, they feel it is their first real sense of responsibility. They take it very seriously, watching two movies and reciting their performance on the way back, just so they can prove themselves to the village. This connects to the coming of age essay topic because they experience independence and responsibility for the first time. This experience, along with others, helps them make the transition to adulthood. We see this again and again in the book when the Main Character and Luo find Four Eyes's books. They read these and spread the stories, which gives them another feeling of responsibility and independence. This also connects to the book's theme of loss, because during this cultural revolution they had lost all control of their lives, and this was the only area where they had any decision or choice.

 An old open-air movie theatre, just like the one mentioned in the book.

Opening Scene of The Flower Girl; a movie mentioned in the book.