Q & A

Val: In Nuclear Power Nuclear Game Chapter 11, a woman with her children begged at the railway station. According to my understanding, the CCP didn't allow begging in public areas at the time.

Helen: Dear Val, thank you for the message, and sorry for the belated reply.
Yes, you're right. Whenever a social crisis happens, the CCP restrict people freedom for as long as his power stability needs.
The begging scene happened soon after the Great Leap Forward movement; Chairman Mao's unrealistic ambition to surpass the West cost 36 million Chinese (mainly peasants) lives from 1959 to 1961. The CCP forced peasants to hand in their crops completely after a dry season to feed the people in the cities and give free aid to other countries (the CCP recently passed 10 million free aid to the Taliban). It was one of the darkest periods in Chinese history, an era of cannibalism. A Chinese author Zhenyi recorded one tragedy in his investigative report:
In spring 1960, he (a peasant) wrapped his father's dead body with a straw mat and put it behind a door. He went to the commune dining hall every day to receive a half bowl of watery porridge. At night when he was too hungry to sleep, he couldn't help pick up a kitchen knife and cut a piece of his father's body and barbequed it…
The purpose of having the details of Igor (a Russian nuclear scientist) giving money and a scarf to the beggar is to include this historical background in the novel. And it also shows Igor's multiple personalities. After all, he and Zoe are all the victims of communist dictatorship.

Thank you, Val, for reading my book. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
Wishing you a prosperous 2022
Helen Huang
Author, NUCLEAR POWER NUCLEAR