Status
Status is a key theme running throughout this biography, and presents mainly in the form of Heng’s father, who is a prominent member of the PRC. This allows him many perks and guaranteed safety, which results in Heng growing up in a affluent lifestyle. However, this is compromised when it is exposed that Heng’s mother was once outspokenly critical of the political regime, and just as quickly as they had been granted the power, all of this is stripped off them and they are banished from the city to live life as peasants.
Political ideologies
Despite the fact that their whole family had to uproot their lives and were stripped off their entire life, Heng’s family still continues to spout the PRC’s political rhetoric for the rest of his life. It seems that despite the injustice to his family, he is unable to recognize the extent of his own conditioning.
