What metaphors are used in Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng?

Cheng's home before the Cultural Revolution is a metaphor for Western living and Western ideas. At the start of the novel, Cheng enjoys a lifestyle unlike that of the rest of the Chinese population. Thanks to her husband's employment with Shell Oil and her position as an assistant to the manager after his death, she enjoys a luxurious lifestyle with many Western comforts, including teas and coffee that the rest of China does not have. Her home and wealth symbolize all that is bad in Chinese society to the Cultural Revolution and its Red Guards.