conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about China's, English-speaker, Shell with the genre: Politics & Social Sciences, Politics & Government?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'Life and Death in Shanghai'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first four paragraphs for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Life and Death in Shanghai
  Instinctively my eyes went to the peephole. No one was watching us. It was such a serious offense to praise the Kuomintang that I was more than ever convinced that she had been given a mandate to do so by the militant guard, probably a Maoist activist anxious to incriminate me. I said, "You mustn't talk wildly. I may report you, you know."
  But she ignored my caution and continued to try to make me talk. "Were you not living in Shanghai before 1949? Wasn't the Kuomintang much better?" she persisted.
  I could see she was skeptical that I could forgive those who had wronged me, because she smiled in a rather supercilious manner. Then, perhaps to gain my confidence, she suddenly declared, "I'm also a Christian!"
  She shook her head, missing the opportunity to report me for spreading religious propaganda. I realized she did not have the intelligence to know that the Maoists who sent her would have been just as pleased to catch me teaching her the Lord's Prayer as to catch me saying derogatory things about the Communist Party. While the Communist Party claimed to allow the Chinese people religious freedom, to spread religious propaganda, that is, to talk about religion or to teach religious rites, was strictly forbidden even before the Cultural Revolution. Since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the penalty for religious observance in any form was very severe. Almost the first act of the Red Guards was the destruction of all temples and churches and the punishment of nuns and monks.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: four more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: When I returned home, I went to the dentist again and was fitted with dentures. As soon as I had them in my mouth, I felt sick. The discomfort was so unbearable that my impulse was to tear the dentures out. I felt as though I had two enormous plates jammed inside my mouth and that I was choking. The dentist told me to take them out at night to get some relief. But I decided to wear them twenty-four hours a day so that I could get used to them sooner and shorten the time of agony. At night, when I couldn't sleep because of the discomfort, I took sleeping pills.
  Now that I had sufficient money, I proceeded to carry out the plan to make my portion of the house self-contained. A door was put at the foot of the back stairs, and the bathroom fixtures were transferred downstairs to make a bathroom in the pantry. In the space where the former bathroom had been, at the end of the corridor, I installed a sink and a gas cooker. The work was carried out by three workers from the local section of the Housing Bureau, which charged me a fee. With the help of Kong and his friends, I was able to get the sink, the wood for the door, and tiles to fill in the space left by the bath. All done through the back door.
  The workers, regular employees of the Housing Bureau on a fixed monthly wage, earned nothing extra for the work they did for me. In such circumstances, their attitude was perfunctory. They would ignore the quality of the work and prolong the time they spent on the job. It was against the law for me to offer them money. I had to encourage them to work well and efficiently with what was called by the Chinese people "treatment." It included cartons of the best-quality cigarettes and elaborate meals with wine and beer. Kong, A-yi, and their friends helped me to obtain the provisions by lining up at various shops and opening back. doors. When the job was finished, I gave the three young men each a present. I told them I wanted to build a wall to divide the hall space but was unable to obtain bricks. While none of them knew of a back door for bricks, they offered to build the wall for me in their spare time if and when I could get the bricks.
  One afternoon, while I was sitting in my room sewing curtains for A-yi's room, three ladies called on me.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last four paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Cheng Meiping, , , –36, , , , , , , , , , –95, –99, , , , , –16, , –46, , , –61, , –69, –87, , –99, –4, –22, , , –41, , , , –78, –88, –96, –22, ,
  Mao Zedong, , , , , , , , –25, , –39, , , , , , –59, , , , , , –27, –75, , , , –4, –9, , , –24, , , , , , , , , , , , , –7, , , , , , , , , –38, , , , –71, –76, , –86, , , ,
  Shanghai, –4, –24, , –63, , , –100, –26, –93, , –71, , , –50, –60, –67, , –94, , –26, , –57, , , , –26, –34
  Shell International Petroleum Company, –6, , –10, , , –22, , , –43, , , , , –20, , –59, –33, –37, –84, , , –27, , ,