Isolation From Group Thought

In Thirty Years in a Red House Zhu Xiao Di talks about how, growing up, he rarely saw his family.  At one point his mother was at one camp, his father another, and his sister with family near Shanghai.  The root of communism idealist belief is equality and all for one and one for all.  I thought it was interesting when Di makes the distinction between Kennedy asking "not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."  The theory behind this is the same as communism--all for the good of the country.  However, there is a large distinction between the implementation of this belief in America and in communist China. 

A scene that was really moving for me was when Di came home to find his mom burning the playing cards.  They didn't know whether or not this would be considered counter-revolutionary.  That's fascinating!  They had to burn cards because they didn't want to seem of a different class etc.  Yet, they kept playing with them, simply using new cards each time.  This brought about the idea of how arbitrary what was and was not okay was.  Everybody was in a constant state of fear that something might be deemed inappropriate.  This is further reenforced by Mao's wife determining what art was and was not revolutionary based on her personal taste preference. 

Despite the main idea that communism brings a people together (and, in some ways it did: ie youths banding together, like-minded individuals seeking comradery and/or being cast off together) but at the same time, families and friends became disjointed.  There was a constant undercurrent of fear and isolationism amidst the tide of communism and a country seeking sameness.