"Only later did I learn that Lao Tang had known for perhaps a month that I would be criticized, that he was disciplined for his defense of me, that he had received a serious warning from the Party. In a moment he remarked, his voice breaking, 'As a husband I cannot even protect my wife'" (Chapter 1, pg. 5.)

"Some were simply curious to see what would happen to such a woman, a person who had been sent to the Soviet Union and to Czechoslovakia as a representative of Beijing's students, a person who had been asked to report on her studies as a model for others, a person who had progressed so smoothly to be a high-ranking cadre, a person who had fallen so low" (Chapter 2, pg. 26.)

"It was never said that the sent-down cadres were being relocated primarily to get them out of the way; it was said...