Despite her attempts to work hard and advance, to show her revolutionary spirit, and to embody the ideals with which she’s been raised, Ji-li and her family lose everything to the Party and Mao’s Cultural Revolution. The blow strikes to the heart of her individual identity, and it also strikes to the heart of her understanding of herself as a child of Mao’s revolution. But even as she wonders what makes life worth living, she answers her own question: helping her mom and Grandma. The Party has turned its back on the Jiangs, but they have not turned their backs on one another.