Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
 Revolution is Not a Dinner Party begins in the weeks before the Cultural Revolution in China. Ling Chang is a nine year old girl whose parents are doctors which are part of the upper class society in China. When Ling's father, Dr. Chang, had free time, he would teach Ling English and they would listen to American radio shows such as Voice of America. Dr. Chang's colleague from the United States, Dr. Smith, kept close contact with Dr. Chang in the time before the Cultural Revolution via mail. In the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, a political officer, Comrade Li, moves into part of the Chang's apartment room and begins conducts his operations from there. With the presence of Comarade Li next door, the Changs were forced to speak about controversial topics in hushed voices and listen to the American radio underneath blankets as well as displaying a revolutionary mindset through putting up pictures of Chairman Mao Zedong and assisting Comrade Li. Shortly after the officer moved in, Ling's closest friend's (Niu) father was taken away and branded as an antirevolutionary. After this, Ling was fearful her father would be taken as well. Shortly thereafter, Niu's mother was taken away as well and Niu was forced to live with her. Shortly after moving in, Niu is sent away to labor on farms because he is in high school and was a member of the aristocracy, from there he tries to escape to Hong Kong. However, Niu is caught and forced to join a revolutionary gang. Meanwhile Ling is constantly being harassed at school by children of the working class who believe Ling is bourgeois; Ling's clothing and long hair are constantly used as a means to make her look bourgeois. Ling's family were marked as bourgeois sympathizers and her father was removed from surgery and was forced to work as a janitor at the hospital. One day, Ling and her father rescue an counter-revolutionary writer who was trying to commit suicide by drowning himself. Because the Ling and Dr. Chang rescued him, Niu and his gang, the Red Guard, came and arrested her father for being an antirevolutionary. Ling is forced to take care of herself during the night because her mother worked nights in the emergency room and her father was no longer there. She became old enough to take over shopping for her mother and began to haggle and barter for more and better goods than could be bought with the ration tickets. Then one day at school the teacher is thrown out and Gao, one of the young revolutionaries tries to cut her hair. Ling retaliates and him with her schoolbag and gets away unscathed. She then receives news that her father will be operating on Gao’s father at the hospital. As Ling attempts to sneak into the compound, the guards catch her and throw her into a room with mats that are infected with lice. Tired and unknowing that the mats are infected with lice, Ling sleeps on them and gets lice infested in her hair. The next morning, the gardener came into the room and let her go. When Ling got back to her apartment, her mother had to cut all of her hair. Six weeks later, Ling is publicly forced to apologize to Gao for beating him by walking about the town with a blackboard on her chest; Chairman Mao had died shortly before and Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife, was arrested and accused of plotting to overthrow the government. When Ling arrived at the hospital during her forced march around town, Comrade Li, the officer living in her study, was arrested for being associated with Jiang Qing. Ling's father was shortly released thereafter and Ling, her mother, and Dr. Chang go home together after finally being reunited.