Yu Hua examines the changes that have shaped China over the past few decades, centering his narrative on the concept of disparity. He begins by sharing a memory from his adolescence during the Cultural Revolution, a time marked by repression and scarcity. Yu Hua recounts how a shy classmate, once the meekest member of their gang, underwent a dramatic transformation after inappropriately touching a girl’s breasts during a fight. This incident, which the classmate recounted with a sense of pride and fulfillment, imbued him with a newfound courage that propelled him to become the gang’s fearless leader.

Yu Hua then discusses the material deprivation that characterized the 1970s, an era when food and clothing were strictly rationed, and he and his classmates, fueled by revolutionary zeal, would mercilessly confiscate oil coupons from peasants attempting to sell them illegally to make ends meet. He recounts an incident when they viciously beat a young peasant, leaving him bloody and distraught, for trying to sell coupons to finance his wedding. The peasant, who had borrowed most of the coupons from relatives and whose family had forgone oil for months to save the rest, was forced to write a confession in his own blood.