As often as she could, she brought the children to work with her. Some of the men frowned and said this was supposed to be an office, not a nursery, but she didn’t want to make her mother take care of them every day, and anyway, weren’t men and women supposed to be equal in this new world? Chairman Mao said that women hold up half the sky. That wasn’t going to happen if they had a baby in their arms the whole time.

Lay Kuan decided to run for the Legislative Assembly on a Barisan ticket, and asked Siew Li to run her campaign. She needed someone she could trust. Siew Li said yes, of course. It was right that Lay Kuan should run. There were already women in the assembly, but why not more? The unions were important, but they had to get their message out to the people.

The first event she organised was a rally outside the wet market in Havelock. It was a whirlwind, getting the flyers printed in time, hiring the makeshift stage and checking that the mics were hooked up to generators. The terrible anxiety on the day when dark clouds looked like they might gather, then when they cleared up but no one seemed prepared to stop and listen. Once Lay Kuan started, though, a crowd gathered. Her voice was clear and bright, and she was saying all the right things. Aren’t you tired of the government ignoring you? Don’t you deserve better? Siew Li went farther from the square to drag people over, and encouraged the other volunteers to do the same. Soon, they had a respectable crowd, and something electric was fizzing through the air.

Their picture was in the Chinese papers the next day. She was so proud, she cut out the article. The actual afternoon had been hot and sweaty, but in black and white they looked noble and determined, rather than scowling against the sun. The banners had hung limply, but someone had thought to give the flag a shake just as the shutter snapped so it waved in what might have been wind. She was looking straight into the camera, baby Janet in her arms, baby Henry in Lina’s. My children, she thought, playing their part in the struggle before they can even speak, imagine what they’ll do later on.

Jason complained that she was making him look bad—as a civil servant, how could he have a wife trying to bring down the government? She reminded him that he worked for the people, not just one party, and he backed down.