Main plot (highlights): In Japan after the Meiji Restoration, high school scumbag Ajie lives in self-consolation like Ah Q. Faced with bullying from the son of a school director like Mr. Zhao, he always uses the "spiritual victory method" to paralyze himself. Until she met Ling, a taciturn transfer student who was plagued by rumors just like Mrs. Xianglin. Similar situations caused the two to have a slight intersection. After Ajie's dignity was trampled on again and again, the unwillingness in his heart quietly sprouted. He began to clumsily defend Ling and tried to resist the bullies. Without a golden finger, he used a bottom-class method to break free from the shackles of "spiritual victory" in a campus where old and new ideas collided, and staged an ordinary but stinging counterattack.
Tags: Japan's Meiji Restoration, high school campus, diaosi counterattack, no golden fingers, first-person perspective
Character:
The male protagonist, Ah Jie, is a weak and introverted high school student who is good at using the "Spiritual Victory Method" to comfort himself. He is as numb as Ah Q but has a trace of his own self-esteem. Later, he gradually awakens to a sense of resistance.
The heroine Ling: A transfer student who was isolated due to unknown rumors. She is taciturn and carries invisible shackles like Xianglin's wife, with forbearance and exhaustion hidden in her eyes.
The son of the villain school director: he has a distinguished family background, is arrogant and domineering, looks down on lower-class students like Mr. Zhao, and takes pleasure in bullying Ajie. He is a symbol of the oppression of the old forces.
Plot: It revolves around the bullying Ajie suffered in school and his intersection with Suzu, showing his process from "spiritual victory" to clumsy resistance, interspersed with the old and new conflicts on campus under the background of the Meiji Restoration.
Reader comments
Book Review: Flapping your wings in the mire and piercing the cocoon of spiritual victory
"Cicada!" " Is a sober book with a dull ache. The author uses the Japanese campus after the Meiji Restoration as the scene to portray Ajie as a contemporary Ah Q, who uses the "spiritual victory method" to survive bullying. However, after meeting Suzu, who was also coerced by rumors, a glimmer of resistance emerged from similar suffering.
There is no golden finger blessing, no cheating counterattack, Ajie's resistance is clumsy and embarrassing, but it carries the most vivid vitality of the people at the bottom. What he broke free from was not only campus bullying, but also the self-paralysis of "spiritual victory" and the clumsy protection of dignity by ordinary people under the collision of old and new ideas.
The title of the book "Cicada" is an excellent metaphor: it has been dormant underground for many years, only to break out of the ground and flap its wings to sing. Ajie's counterattack is the struggle and awakening of ordinary people in the quagmire. Every stroke has a stinging feeling, but it also hides the most touching vitality. It is sad to read and even more thought-provoking.
Book Review: Flapping your wings in the mire and piercing the cocoon of spiritual victory "Cicada!" " Is a sober book with a dull ache. The author uses the Japanese campus after the Meiji Restoration as the scene to portray Ajie as a contemporary Ah Q, who uses the "spiritual victory method" to survive bullying. However, after meeting Suzu, who was also coerced by rumors, a glimmer of resistance emerged from similar suffering. There is no golden finger blessing, no cheating counterattack, Ajie's resistance is clumsy and embarrassing, but it carries the most vivid vitality of the people at the bottom. What he broke free from was not only campus bullying, but also the self-paralysis of "spiritual victory" and the clumsy protection of dignity by ordinary people under the collision of old and new ideas. The title of the book "Cicada" is an excellent metaphor: it has been dormant underground for many years, only to break out of the ground and flap its wings to sing. Ajie's counterattack is the struggle and awakening of ordinary people in the quagmire. Every stroke has a stinging feeling, but it also hides the most touching vitality. It is sad to read and even more thought-provoking.