16). He notes that "everyone was watching everyone else" (12). His parents were divorced in 1960. Heng began to experience being ostracized by some of his school mates. His first doubts arise: "The Party had made us strangers to the woman who loved us more than anyone in the world. It didn't make sense, but it was reality" (29)
Heng's family and millions of others fall on hard times during the economic experiment known as the Great Leap Forward. Nai Nai dies of hunger and the family experiences privation. During an invasion scare, the children are evacuated to relatives in the country where the life is harsh and primitive but normal. The family continues to suffer from ridicule. His elder sister, Liang Fang, is becoming estranged from the father and taken with the Young Communist League which she is unable to join because of her mother's past which also interferes with his father's new female relationships. His second wife
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