They suspected that Kingston's aunt was pregnant with another man's child so they broke into the house as punishment. Villages in China lived in cooperation with each other. Each family knew each other and lived as a closed society. China was going through a hard time while Kingston's aunt was pregnant. Famine had struck the country and food was scarce. Food was precious and people needed to eat to survive. When the villagers discovered that there was a baby on the way, they had to punish the family by raiding their house in search of food: "As the villagers approached, we could see that some of them, probably men and women that we knew well, they wore white masks” (255). The masks were worn to hide their grief and identity. The color white is the color of mourning in ancient Chinese culture. Some people who oppose this tradition may believe that the aunt was raped and that the whole family should not suffer because of her actions, but betraying tradition in Chinese culture results in