Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Paragraph 1)

When the story first opens, the reader finds that the setting is in the mountains. Shortly after, there is a paragraph or two explaining the idea of reeducation and why the two teenage boys, Luo and the narrator, are in the mountains. It is nice that the author chose to add the part on reeducation because it provides background information to the setting. It seemed strange that Mao, the ruler, wanted to send the youth to be reeducated with the poor laborers. Usually a wants its people to be the smartest and most educated. Perhaps Mao was afraid that if the young generation were exposed to western ideas that they would revolt against him. I am not sure what it is they are supposed to learn in the mountains, maybe how to work with their hands and forget modern teachings. Or maybe it is a way to keep them occupied and out of the major cities where Mao is trying to form his perfect society. It is sad when the narrator discusses Luo's father the dentist and his public humiliation. I dont think that the dentist really slept with the nurse like he was being accused of. I think that that served as a way to prosecute the father on legitimate grounds. It sounds like the boys are 18 and 19 years old and live in a house on stilts above a pigsty on the mountain. The two have to work very hard and the narrator believes they have a minimal chance of ever going back to the city. The people of the mountain are so impressed by the boy's pocket watch alarm clock and the narrator's violin that it is obvious how behind the times and old fashioned the people in the mountains are.