Along with a number of other students, Jiang has been chosen by her school's Red Guard Committee to represent all the teachers and the students in her school at a forthcoming Class Education Exhibition.

This has been organized to expose the class enemies' alleged evil as well as to inspire revolutionary enthusiasm and promote the values of the Cultural Revolution. All the students chosen to represent the school have been hand-picked for their academic and political excellence, so this is a very great honor indeed.

And yet it doesn't sit well with Jiang. She should be happy to receive such an honor, but she doesn't feel worthy of it. When she hears the words "academic and political excellence," she doesn't feel that they apply to her.

As she later tells teacher Zhang, she has a couple of other deep misgivings about taking on such an important role. For one thing, she doesn't see herself as much of a leader. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, she feels uneasy about participating in a Class Education Exhibition when her own grandfather was a landlord, a member of a hated and despised social class. Because of this, Jiang doesn't know how she can possibly condemn "the evil landlords of the old society."