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She was a pious Buddhist and every day in her prayers asked Buddha not ro reincarnate her as a woman. "Let me become a cat or dog, but not a woman," w...more

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My mother could see that as far as my father's relationship with the Party was concerned, she was an outsider. One day, when she ventured some critica...more

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They were endowed with the qualities of youth- they were rebellious, fearless, eager to fight for a 'just cause', thirsty for adventure and action. Th...more

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Instead of sniping at her like Mrs. Mi, Mrs. Ting let my mother do all sorts of things she wanted, like reading novels: before, reading a book without...more

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There were no state regulations about hairstyles or clothes. It was what everyone else was wearing that determined the rules of the day. And because t...more

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Over the years of the Cultural Revolution, I was to witness people being attacked for saying "thank you" too often, which was branded as "bourgeois hy...more

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Meetings were an important means of Communist control. They left people no free time, and eliminated the private sphere. The pettiness which dominated...more

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Dr. Xia was working as a salaried doctor attached to another man's medicine shop, which did not give him much chance to display his skill. But he work...more