Phoenix of the Suitcase

Sijie uses the symbol of the suitcase to demonstrates the lack of intellectual liberty during the Cultural Revolution and hope that liberty can bring. The suitcase contains western literature, but is locked away and kept only to Four-Eyes, and is rarely opened. The books and suitcase are a representation of the intellectual liberty that most people lacked and that the Cultural Revolution was trying to do away with. It also shows the true value of intellectual liberty and how having access to the ideas of different cultures and works show the hope that intellectual liberty can bring.

“Without him, I would never have understood the splendor of taking free and independent action as an individual...my poor educated and re-educated brains had been incapable of grasping the notion of one man standing up against the whole world” (Sijie, 110).

In this quote, Sijie shows the lack of intellectual liberty during re-education and the Cultural Revolution in China. Before the narrator discovered the books and read them, he did not have a sense of purpose or individualism without intellectual liberty. The books opened up a door for him, empowered him to be himself, and take his own actions. Though the books were precious, the fact that they were locked away and chained is a metaphor for how the Mao banned all literature save The Little Red Book, and forced beliefs and ideas into the people, trying to take away their identity.

“I took the novels out of the suitcase on by one, opened them, studied the portraits of the authors, and passed them onto Luo. Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me feel as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives” (Sijie, 99).

This quote illustrates how precious the books are to Luo and the narrator and how repressed they were during the Cultural Revolution. Since they are both being forced into re-education as a result of the Communist party’s Cultural Revolution, Luo and the narrator are using the books from the suitcase as their last form of intellectual liberty. It is their only way to continue learning since they have been stripped of knowledge and rights due to the Cultural Revolution, so the books are very significant to them. Because they never had access to any of these books or the ideas presented in them, the books are to them as precious as “human lives,” something that makes life worth living. To them, the suitcase and what it contains is a representation of hope and a better life.

While the suitcase emphasizes the repression of the Chinese people under Mao, it is also a symbol of liberty and hope.