Housing in China
Early on the reader is introduced to the intricacies of the problem of housing in China. One of the first things that is learned about the protagonist is his desperate hope to find the addition of his name to a list of consideration for moving into a better complex:
“Most of his fellow workers grew reticent and mysterious, as though all of a sudden everybody had struck gold; they became mean to each other.”
How to Avoid Trouble with Chinese Intelligence
A secret investigation into Shao Bin’s family background has been undertaken and completed with shocking results: nothing of substance was discovered to implicate him in anything even slightly nefarious. The secret to this success is economic: his entire family was comprised of beggars and peasants. The result is metaphorical magic for him:
“In this respect, Bin was clean like a piece of blank paper."
Chinese Molehills
Interrogation catches up with Shao and the result is, in his eyes, men acting like hoodlums toward a perfectly respectable citizen. The whole things seems to have been blown out of all proper proportion and he engages a metaphorical image to describe this; an image with the spirit of familiarity but not the letter:
“Those hoodlums just wanted to do him in and had made a pond out of a pee puddle.”
Self-Esteem
Despite having some difficulties on the daily domestic front, Shao Bin has no problems with self-esteem. He knows he is more intellectually gifted than others, more well-read and talented. In fact, an intuitive awareness of his own superiority to peers is definitely not at the top of the list of his problems:
“Who were Liu Shu and Ma Gong? They were wine vessels and rice bags, their existence only burdening the earth, whereas he had read hundreds of books and was knowledgeable about strategies.”
The Best Laid Plans
Shao Bin may think highly of himself, but he’s gotten a reputation as a lunatic. And some powerful people are planning to use that reputation against him. And then in an instant everything changes:
“…the official news of his admission had arrived. It indeed came like thunder and blew up the leaders’ plan to make a jackass of him in the eyes of the plant…Whatever you called him, a lunatic or a mad dog, you couldn’t deny he was bursting with talent and energy and was a scholar by nature.”
