“He said our son had taken part in counter-revolutionary riots,” said his father. “I said I didn’t believe that. The students were just marching and striking. They didn’t have any guns or weapons so how could you possibly say they were rioting? Students are students. Being patriotic is not a crime.” Guofeng’s death was the first in a series of devastating calamities to afflict his family. His younger brother died of renal failure in 2002, followed by his grandmother and grandfather who had been left heartbroken and distraught by the government’s refusal to recognise his killing. In 2003, his father was diagnosed with kidney cancer. His mother says even today she suffers from constant insomnia.