“But as I got older, more and more stress was placed on the three stages of Revolutionary glory: the Young Pioneers, the Communist Youth League, and the Party itself. It became clear to me that success in the political arena was a prerequisite for success in anything else, and if I had the slightest ambitions for myself I had to achieve these basic signs of social recognition. Those students who had the right to wear the Pioneers’ triangular red scarf received much more praise than those who didn’t, no matter what their grades; and at home Father and Nai Nai were constantly asking me if my application had been approved. But it was no use. I was rejected year after year, until I found myself in a tiny minority of outsiders whose ‘political performances’ were the very worst in the class.”

The new reality of communist society in China is that no amount of talent and hard work can overcome a tainted political record. The Party has created a society where family background, rather than individual merit, decides a young person’s place in the world. As Liang’s family associations lead to more and more closed doors, Liang becomes increasingly bitter and angry, first with his parents and later with the Cultural Revolution as a whole.

“I was finding out how life worked. As Chairman Mao said, everyone had his own class position, and human relationships were class relationships that could not be transcended. There was no room for a personal life outside the one assigned to you by the Party, and the Party’s values had to govern your private life or you would be punished like Uncle Yan and Mother. The Party had made us strangers to the woman who loved us more than anyone else in the whole world. It didn’t make sense, but it was reality.”

This quote introduces the theme of the destruction of family relationships in Communist China. The fact that the Party “assign[s]” relationships to Chinese citizens indicates that the separation and destruction of families is deliberate, a tactic to ensure the Chinese remain loyal to the Party above all else. Anyone who chooses personal relationships over the Party—as Uncle Yan does,when he defends Mother—is “punished” as a result.

“[Liang Fang] confessed her weakness in going to see her Capitalist mother, and her determination to overcome such tendencies, saying she hated herself for their past contact. She even said she wanted to renounce all family ties and let the Party be her true father and mother, because only then could she become a true Revolutionary and work for the glory of Socialism.

“I felt sad when I read these things. I could understand why she hated our mother, since sometimes I felt that way too. But I wondered whether she hadn’t gone too far. How could the Party be her parents? No matter what I felt during the day, I still dreamed at night of our lives when we were all together before the divorce. Could anything change that? I was afraid that I too might be led to cut off the last of my feelings to try to achieve an impossible goal; soon I too would be of age to join the League.”

Young Liang realizes just how great a sacrifice the Party requires for its members. To become a “true Revolutionary,” Liang’s sister has to deny her most basic human emotions, including love for her parents. Even at a young age, Liang isn’t sure he’s willing to make a similar sacrifice, an early indication of his later rejection of Party doctrine.