Country. and then it all came apart. first xi s father was arrested, supposedly for supporting a play and a book that krcriticized mau. his mother was forced to denounce his father. one of his sisters reportedly committed suicide. because she was being hounded so much for the family s political problems, and that s a fact that you won t see in the official party histories. xi, still just a child, was forced to fight for his life in the streets of beijing. there was nobody at home. there were no parents at home for a very young teenager. and that teenager was trying to survive in the chaos of a revolution. the culture rev lolution was this implosion of chinese society, right down to the family level. just this kind of inferno of all