1b

*****

The 1950's in Hong Kong was an exciting time to live in. World War II was now firmly in the past, only remembered hotly by people old enough to remember the indignities suffered at the hands of the Japanese. Barbara had been young enough that had she walked up to the Japanese soldiers in Shanghai, she would've received a pat on the head and perhaps food even. Her older brother, Simon was just a year older so his memory of the invasion was also suspect.

Jimmy, her sister Carol's boyfriend, was two years older than Simon, and was of the age where suspicion fell easily upon his shoulders. To hear Jimmy talk of the invasion was to suffer through a couple of hours of heated discussion, which Barbara studiously avoided. After all, the war was over and they weren't under Communist rule.

The late 40's, after the war with Japan had ended, was a turbulent time in China. Two factions vied for the soul of China - the corrupt Kuomingtang (Nationalist) party and the dreaded no-nonsense Communist party. Of the two parties, Barbara's family stood firmly on the Nationalistic side. After all, Sun Yat Sen founded that party and the family had ties from before the invasion.

But the Nationalist Party had a dark taint to them; they had, under the guidance of Chang Kai Shek, lost to the invading Japanese Party. The shame of the loss was multiplied when one realized how small Japan was to China. Blame flew onto everything the Nationalist Party touched; and out of this disgruntlement grew the Communist Party, starting with students in the universities that had studied Marx.

Within Barbara's family, a small re-enactment of the war for China's soul took place. Barbara's father had been the principal of the largest English girls' school, and therefore represented the establishment: the Nationalist Party. Carol, Barbara's sister had been in college and had made friends with students that fervently hated the establishment. In their eyes, the descent of China's status in the world as well as the corruption that ran rampant in every government office had everything to do with the Nationalist Party and the influence of Western ideals (apparently, the students didn't appreciate the irony of being influenced by Karl Marx).

When Isaiah, Barbara's father, finally realized that Carol had been allowing her friends to use his school's printing press to print out communist manifestos, he had to make a decision quickly, for the situation he had been placed in was a tight squeeze. On one side, his family had ties to the Nationalist Party. On the other hand, the manifestoes that were posted all over Shanghai might get traced back to his school. What to do? No matter who won the battle for China's soul, people would point to his family as being on the other side.

Feeling that no choice was left, Isaiah packed up his family and fled to Macau, a Portugese colony off the coast of Hong Kong.

[499 words]