When Amy was on the train to the re-education camp, traveling through the 10,000 mountains area, the train stopped at a station, but didn't let anyone out. Then thousands of kids ran up to the train and started banging on the windows begging for food. Amy recalls that their poverty was so severe that there were grown up girls without clothes. Amy recalls being surprised to see such severe poverty when the propaganda had always said that those sorts of problems only happened in other countries. A few moments later, the Liberation Army showed up to chase the children away from the train. The experience was a real shock to Amy, just to realize that people in their country could be that poor.

At the re-education camp, the most loyal to the party poor farmers would talk to the camp internees. The camp buildings and land had been confiscated from a Thai chief and the former villagers.

Amy was assigned to speak to a Thai woman who spoke a little bit of Mandarin. Amy asked her how her life had changed before and after communism. She said that the reason she was classified as a poor farmer was that her village had been burned down and she had fled to a Thai village. The Thai village had accepted them, but they had no land. They worked for the local chief and eventually they were able to earn enough to rent some land to farm. The land in their area was very bountiful.

After the land was turned over to the CCP and the government commune took over all the land, the misery began. The rich peoples property was taken to give to the poor, but was actually given to the state. The communist officers called a daily roll call. You had to work even if you were sick. Two thirds of the produce was taken by the government. The farmers were left with only a 5 month supply of rice for the year. Formerly, there was enough to live on and life was good. Families took care of each other and had their own private gardens. After communism, you were not allowed to tend your own garden. Some of the locals made a Buddhist temple were they would place some extra rice for the poor. They were hung for stealing food.

Amy asks why the same land was bountiful and the people lived well, then they were poor. She suggests it was the redistribution of wealth.

In 1985, Amy's family visited Hong Kong and she recalls being shocked by the amazing food at a market. She had never seen so much food and with no long lines. She remembers being amazed by the idea of a choice of different ice cream flavors. She says in China they "only had ice, no cream".

Charlie had met a beautiful "dancing girl" in a night club and fallen in love with her. They got married and went into Charlie's family real estate business in Shanghai. They were very happy and had two children. In 1948, Charlie's friends from the missionary school prepared to leave before the communist take over. They encouraged Charlie to leave to Taiwan, but Charlie did not want to leave his family or their properties.

The communists took over in 1949 and after the start of the Korean war, anyone who had had any association with the US military had to register themselves. Failure to do so would result in jail. So, Charlie let them know about his time as an interpreter. He was arrested six months later, accused of treason and espionage. He was sentenced to ten years at a labor camp. All his properties were confiscated. He was released early, because he was sick with Tuberculosis. His family had been kicked out of their house and were living in a door mans reception room.

At that time, people without a job in Shanghai were asked to go to North West China to work in coal mines. He moved in with his Grandmother, while his wife took the kids with her and went to work in the coal mines. Charlie still had a missionary friend who was in Shanghai and working as a doctor, who was able to help Charlie and give him some medicine. At the time Americans and British were "enemy number 1" in communist China, but there was still some western products available through Hong Kong. So, Charlie was able to get some medicine to treat his Tuberculosis.

Charlie's wife was working in harsh conditions in the coal mine, but was able to secure a position as a cook. They barely had enough food. A communist officer at the camp offered her more food, if she would be his mistress. She had no other way to take care of her kids.

During the Cultural Revolution, Charlie, still weak from his sickness, struggled to find any work. However, the Red Guard ignored him. After the Cultural Revolution his wife returned to Shanghai. In 1981, Charlie managed to contact a priest form the missionary school who offered him a means of applying for political asylum in Taiwan. Charlie refused on the grounds that his wife and sons would still be in mainland China.

Amy notes the similarity to those people in Afghanistan who have been working with the US.

She recalls her mother pawning off her wedding ring to get enough money to buy some food from Hong Kong. Amy recalls that gradually all her mothers jewelry went to the pawn shop. The shop owner gave his son a Rolex as insurance to pay for a way home. There were "coyote's" who would help people escape from China. Amy considered escaping to Burma, but did not know what she could do once she got there. Amy recalls hitchhiking closer to the border. She recalls the first battle was untrained kids who "all got killed".

Amy describes how difficult it would be to communicate with someone in Burma to get transport to Hong Kong. The pawn shop owners son traded his Rolex for passage to Burma, with the hope of meeting a relative in Hong Kong, but later his dead body was found, most likely having been killed for his watch.

Amy recalls going to the clinic to get some medicine, but being stopped by a flooded river when she returned to the labor camp. She waved to her friend Steve. He held out a branch to help her across. It was a harrowing experience, when the branch was lost.

Years later, Amy asked him what really kept him going. His answer was "humiliation". Then he told her a story from his life. Steve's father had been an engineer in the West, but in 1943 decided to return to China to help fight the Japanese. Because of his language skills, he was assigned to the Special Technical Co-operative Organization, which was a joint project between the US and China. After the war, he returned to Shanghai to be a camera engineer. Steve's father, who was never interested in politics, married and had two children.

After the Communists took over, the Special Technical Co-operative Organization was condemned as anti-communist and foreign imperialist. There was a concerted propaganda effort to portray the organization as torturing communists. Steve's father was arrested and sent to prison in 1952 and his family was labeled "anti-revolutionary". In 1981, Steve's father was released. Very old and having suffered greatly, he was hardly able to speak. Steve attempted to migrate the family to Canada, but his father did not want to go. He didn't want to explain his life to anyone. He eventually relented and with a broken spirit, he lived in Canada until 1991.

When the CCP announced that they were not a "one voice party" and welcomed different opinions, Mei Mei wrote a lot of opinion pieces. However, Mao then announced that anyone who spoke against the CCP was a "poison snake". Mei Mei's mother was arrested, sent to a labor camp and the father was told to divorce her. He begged the local leader not to force him to divorce her, pleading that his wife had made a mistake. After hiring a nanny to care for their child, and many letters pleading for his wife's release, after 8 years she was allowed to come home, provided she did not return to work.

In 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, Mei Mei's father's brother was accused of being an intellectual and attacked. He jumped out of a window. Mei Mei's father was told to identify the body and denounce his brother. When he returned home, he told his family not to retrieve the body if he dies.

In 1967, Mei Mei's father and his boss was accused of being a "class enemy". They were tortured and beaten. He was told that his wife would be sent back to the labor camp. He bought a ferry ticket and jumped into the ocean.

Mei Mei tried not to remember these things, but there was a documentary depicting great changes in China over the next 20 years. The documentary correctly predicted economic progress, but incorrectly predicted more political openness.

Amy suggested that Mei Mei could tell her family's story to her daughter. Mei Mei was unable to tell the documentarians her story. So, Amy ended up being interviewed.

Her father had worked for a CCP propaganda newspaper. In 1957, during the "Rightist" movement, people were encouraged to express opinions and suggestions to the CCP. Mao had suggested that the CCP welcomed all kinds of voices. After intellectuals made various statements, Mao labeled them "snakes" and they were rounded up and sent to labor camps.

Nan mentions that the officials sent to find "Rightists" had quotas they had to meet. So, people were accused of being "Rightists" under extraordinarily thin justifications.

Amy recalls that her friends family was kicked out of their house when her father was arrested for being a "Rightist". About 8 months later, the mother received a letter saying that her husband was dead. She was told she could not retrieve the body or the ashes.

For a long time, Amy's friend's mother could not afford to take care of her and wanted to give her away, but a friend intervened and offered to take her. Some time later, Amy's friends brothers put together some money to give their father a burial. Having nothing else, they buried some of his clothes.

In 2005, Amy's friend went searching for the labor camp in the region they suspected her father was held in a labor camp. After searching for several months, she had found a map suggesting there was a labor camp. A local official told her there was no labor camp. Some old ladies seemed they might know something, but were too scared to tell her. She paid one of them and got a lead. Then paid some more people, but received no meaningful information.

She explained to Amy that a schoolmate of hers had found her father, but discovered that the CCP had changed him into a completely different person. When she found her father still alive, the father did not want to know her. He said, "I wish you had not found me."

Amy's friend's lived close by when Amy was in elementary school. Ping pong was very popular at the time and Amy represented her local team. She met her friend, because they were frequent opponents and always shook hands after the match. When they realized they lived close together, they started playing ping pong together and became friends.

Amy had heard that her friends father had committed suicide, but never knew the story. Amy's friend became a movie star and was very successful, but one day gave it all up to become a Buddhist nun. When Amy met her again, she asked why she gave it all up. Amy asked if it had to do with her childhood and she said, "yes".

Amy recalls when they were young, something had happened with her friend. She was at home with her grandmother, waiting for her mother, who was very late to return home. When the mother came home, her cloths were wet and she was very cold. The mother told all the kids to go to bed, then started crying and spoke to the grandmother. "He's dead", she told her.

She had inquired at his work and was told that his body had already been taken to the crematorium. At the crematorium, she asked to see his body. She was told that she could not see the body, because she had to denounce him. She waited in the rain, but was not let in. They did tell her that, if she returns with her daughter, they might be let in, because they would not require young kids to publicly denounce their father.

Amy's friend had heard everything from their conversation. Her mother gave her some cloths to take to the crematorium for her father the next day. At that moment, she felt she became an adult. She recalls not being shocked, because she had nightmares about this happening. She brought the cloths and a fee to try and get her fathers ashes. She was shocked, because there were so many other children waiting along with her. She waited in the extreme cold, watching the smoke of many bodies come out of the chimney. She was let in about two hours later and was told wait again inside.

Finally the crematorium employee came out and told her, "he threw up everything, probably took some pills." He asked if that was correct and she just nodded. Then he said, "Don't tell your mother. One of his ears had been torn apart." He told her to come back later to retrieve the ashes. The next day she took her fathers ashes back to his home village.

Amy recalls, that during the Korean war, the CCP wanted business people to donate money to buy airplanes for the war effort. Everyone was required to donate money or supplies. Amy's father's business had to use clay to make their products, because of supply shortages. Her father's friend was making educational stationary and other supplies. He acquired some plastic to make rulers, but the CCP insisted he needed to make supplies for the military. He didn't have enough money to buy the materials. He was told he would be a patriotic hero and was given an IOU.

After the war, a movement was started to eliminate all the anti-revolutionaries. The business owners who were owed money were accused of being anti-revolutionaries, such that they would not be paid back. Amy's father's friend was falsely accused and executed.

Fortunately, Amy's Father was not asked to supply the military directly. After the Korean war, Amy's father was arrested for allegedly failing to disclose his former associations with the previous government. He was scheduled for execution, but fortunately he was not killed.

Michael Olsen mentions Xi saying that "you may live some other place, but you are still part of our family" and asks Amy if she has ever felt any pressure from the CCP. Amy explains that in the early 1990's, her father intended to write a book about his life. However, an acquaintance in San Francisco was imprisoned for being a triple agent. He was killed or committed suicide in prison by putting a plastic bag on his head. Amy suggested to her father that he should not write the book, because she did not want a plastic bag to end up on his head.

At age 13, he had been working as an operator for a telephone company. He had practiced at home, such that he could perform his task with his eyes closed. He had been caught reading a book during work hours, but the business owner thought he was very smart. The business owner asked to meet his parents and offered to send him to Shanghai to study. The only catch was that he would no longer be earning a salary from the telephone company.

At the time, Amy's father was 15, had never attended High School and he was being sent to College. The first year he was able to do well. About two years later, warlords had started a war. The businessman who was supporting him had joined an army and been killed. So, Amy's father's financial support was gone. He decided embark on "his own adventure" and go to Hong Kong.

Returning to China at age 32, he believed that every child would have the chance to go to school under the CCP. He had assets in Hong Kong and founded his teaching equipment business. "The CCP promised everything", invited all the businessmen back, made them enemies of the state and confiscated their assets.

Amy draws a parallel between the betrayal of Chinese businessmen in her fathers time and the betrayal of Hong Kong, pointing out that Hong Kong was supposed to remain independent for 50 years and it only did for 24 year.