Chapter 11 Summary and Analysis

Chairman Mao decides that the intellectuals should be moved to a cadre school where they can be reeducated by workers, peasants, and soldiers. The Beida cadre school is established at Liyuzhou. Yue Daiyun is offered the chance to remain at Beida. When she hesitates to accept, her name is removed from the list. She wants to get away form the political tension. Tang Dan is also assigned to the countryside and went to Dedu county near the Soviet border. Tang Shuang goes with his parents to Jiangzi province.

The group spends the first month constructing their dwellings. Yue Daiyun sees Lao Tang and Tang Shaung only on holidays, even though they live less than half an hour apart. They have to make bricks to build better dwellings for winter. Yue Daiyun likes performing the menial tasks and being away from the...