In his autobiography entitled Son of the Revolution, Lian Heng discusses his early life and primarily, his life during China's infamous Cultural Revolution.
Born in 1954 in the city of Changsha, Heng grew up as Mao began to cement his power (after winning the Chinese Civil War and coming to power in 1949). His parents were both aspiring members of the Communist party, but after his mother is branded a "Rightist" for criticizing the Chinese Communist Government and sent to a "reform" camp to change her thinking. But Heng's father wanted nothing to do with his wife, so he divorced her and forbade his kids from talking to her.
Heng talks a little bit more about his family before getting to the proverbial meat of the book: his life in China during the Cultural Revolution, which started when he was 12 in 1966. Heng discusses how the Cultural Revolution effected his family - from his father's branding as a “Reactionary Capitalist stinking intellectual” to his father's job loss and subsequent public embarrassment to the Red Guard burning all of Heng's fathers books.
Heng also details how the Cultural Revolution affected his fellow countrymen and how it divided the country (particularly, how it inspired violence in some Chinese citizens with each other). Really, Heng details how the Cultural Revolution radically transformed China and its inhabitants.
