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The Cultural Revolution Begins
Chairman Mao Zedong launched a campaign that would leave the country changed. -
"Reactionary"
The Narrator and Luo attended a big political meeting where Luo's father was being publicly humiliated outside the hospital where both the father and mother worked. His dad was being humiliated because it was discovered that he had slept with a nurse. -
Luo and the Narrator
Luo and the Narrator of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress arrived to a village in Phoenix of the Sky to be re-ducated in 1971 -
Movies
Luo and the narrator were praised for how well they were able to tell stories, and the headman of their village sent them to an "oral cinema show" -
Luo & the Narrator Return
Upon their return to their village, Luo recited the story to his fellow villagers. Everyone loves the story and the headman says he'll send them to watch movies every certain period of time. -
The Tailor
Luo and the narrator were on their way to visit their friend Four-Eyes when they came across the famous tailor. The tailor had his sewing machine carried behind him. -
The Little Seamstress
Luo and the narrator get to visit the Little Seamstress in order to get Luo's pants lengthened. They were both impressed at how pretty she was. She cooks soup and Luo bets her that hey both have second toes longer than the others, and he wins. -
Malaria
After Luo and the narrator were sent to work in the local coal mine, Luo ends up catching malaria. Villagers tried a remedy which consists of whipping him with tree branches, however that does not work. The narrator reads a letter from the Seamstress and learns she set up two days for them so they could tell a story in her village. -
The Sorceresses
Luo and the narrator traveled to the Little Seamstress's village to tell their story. Upon their arrival the Seamstress makes a remedy hoping it will help Luo and invites 4 sorceresses. The narrator tells them a story as they begin to fall asleep, and he was not as good as Luo. However, Luo makes them cry with a really deep line. The narrator also sees the Seamstress kiss Luo on his forehead. -
The Suitcase
Luo and the narrator see their friend Four-Eyes working and he tells them to go over to his house meanwhile he finishes his work. While they are at his house they find a suitcase that looks very suspicious because it was locked, and hidden. They confront him about the suitcase but Four-Eyes decides to ignore their questions. -
Helpers
The narrator and Luo travel to Four-Eyes, and learned that he had broken his glasses. They offer to help him with his work, in exchange for one of the books from his suitcase. Four-Eyes was not very happy at first at this, but he ends up giving in, and lets them borrow the Balzac novel, Ursule Mirouet. -
The Story Continues
Luo travels to the Little Seamstress's to tell her the story he has read. Upon his return he tells the narrator that he slept with the Seamstress under a ginkgo tree and he saved the blood that dripped onto the leaves on a handkerchief. -
The Journey
Luo and the narrator propose to Four-Eyes that if they can retrieve songs from the elderly miller, he would lend them more books. They both convince him, and they go about to the Little Seamstress so that she could prepare uniforms for both of them so they could make an official impression. The narrator speaks to the miller in Mandarin, and Luo was his "translator." The old miller accepts and sings them a song. -
The Songs
The narrator and Luo successfully retrieve the songs for Four-Eyes, and when they finally gave them to him he was quite ungrateful and yelled at them because he said they were not good enough to publish. The narrator gets furious because Four-Eyes decides to change the songs and punches him. -
Four-Eyes
It is known that Four-Eyes will be leaving the re-education village, as his mother arrives in order to pick him up. They both plan a bouquet to celebrate, and Luo, the Seamstress, and the narrator plan to steal the suitcase from his house while he and his mother are gone. The narrator and Luo perform the robbery, and have a small complication when Four-Eyes and his mother walk into the house, but Four-Eyes' diarreah saved them and they were able to successfully escape. -
Some Time Later
The headman returns to the village after a month of being absent, a month in which Luo and the narrator take advantage of so they don't have to work, and dedicate themselves to reading. The tailor visits the village and chooses to stay at Luo's and the narrator's house on stilts. -
The Headman
The narrator is caught in the act of telling a story to the tailor by the village headman and is threatened to be turned into authorities by the headman if Luo does not fix the pain in his tooth, due to a dentist pulling out the wrong tooth during his month of absence. Luo agrees to pull the tooth out of his mouth, with the help of the narrator. -
Perspectives
We are introduced to 3 points of view, Luo's, the Old Miller's, and the Little Seamstress's. Each of them explain what they saw or what they did during the time that Luo and the Seamstress were together at a pool. Luo and the Seamstress seem to have mutual feelings for each other. The Miller says he will not denounce them, although he acknowledges that somebody else probably would. -
The Narrator's Mission
As Luo left for one month due to his mother being sick, he leaves the Little Seamstress in the hands of the narrator. He was left in charge to take care of her and protect her from all the others that were trying to win her over. The narrator had a tough job, as he himself would have wanted the Seamstress for himself. He had to fight off other suitors as they cornered him and made fun of him for all he did for the Seamstress. -
The News
As Luo is still gone, the Seamstress confesses to the narrator that she is pregnant. They both understand the severity of this situation, as she is still illegal to have a child, because she cannot have a child out of marriage and she is too young to be married. The narrator and her both search possibilities and agree that an abortion is the best choice. The narrator travels to the city to speak to a doctor, which is not easy to find at all, but finally gets a hold of him. -
The Doctor
The narrator and the doctor come to an agreement that if he performs the abortion on the Little Seamstress, he would receive a book from him. The doctor performs it, and the narrator gives him Ursule Mirouet, and the first volume of Jean-Christophe.
The narrator and the Seamstress stop by the cemetery to pay their respects to the preacher, who had passed away a couple of days before. -
The Aftermath
Soon enough, the narrator and Luo notice changes in the Seamstress. She dresses different, and talks different. Not long after, the tailor infoms them during one of their visits that she has taken off to move into the city. Both Luo and the narrator take off running in order to find her. The narrator fears that his dream of finding her dead on the side of a cliff will come true, but luckily they find her alive. -
The Little Seamstress
After a good amount of time, Luo and the narrator finaly spot the Seamstress at the cemetery. Luo was the only one who spoke to her, as the narrator waited for him while watching from far. When Luo returned without her, he told the narrator what she had said, which was "she had learnt one thing from Balzac, was that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price" -
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was declared dead, leaving Hua Guofeng in charge. -
Dai Sijie (no specific date)
The author of "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" was a victim of "re-education" between 1971 and 1974. He ultimately left China in 1984 for France, and has been working and living there eve since.
