An experience that reflects my essential question, is when in the book Ye Wenjie seeks out the red guards that killed her father. This moment is very reflective on my essential question and shows how the affects of the cultural revolution had on science fiction. Moments like these in the book are very interesting and seem to be a theme of the book. The book makes you forget that the entire plot would not have been possible without the cultural revolution. I think this is quite reflective of older Chinese peoples experiences with the cultural revolution. The cultural revolution had an affect on almost every elder Chinese person. I think in this modern age they often forget the impact the cultural revolution had on their lives, yet constantly face moments of remembrance to those times of turmoil. This moment made me realize a couple things, first I didn’t realize how the cultural revolution really ended and how red guards were allowed to be free, secondly, I didn’t really understand what red guards were and why educated youths were sent to farms. This forced me to research the gang of four and how the cultural revolution ended. This moment reminded me of what my essential question was. I had previously been so engaged in the physics and astronomical elements of the book I had really forgot to relate it to the affects of the revolution, but then the book showed me how this all is really related to the cultural revolution when you are reading something set in China within the last 50 years.