In an ideal communist scenario, all citizens work hard and everyone shares the fruits of labor fairly. So what happens if there is no fruit to be reaped, no matter how hard you try? This situation is illustrated in “Ah, Xiao Xie” and the workers received no support. The narrator says, “Our nonexistent power plant generated no profits, and because our salaries had been cut as low as humanly possible, most of us received several hundred yuan less per month” (188). Wen is not saying that this is an implausible concept; he says this is only plausible when the economy is doing well and there are enough resources for everyone. If insufficient capital is produced, a problem arises: many people sharing meager resources leaves everyone unsatisfied. Another symbol for this appears when only one bed is available for factory workers. Wen sees an opportunity to lie down on the bed, but shortly after, another worker enters the room. “Who the fuck are you?” he shouted. Damn, I go out to shit and someone has taken the bed! (207). The single bed represents the issue of scarcity in communism; When times are tough, no one is willing to help because everyone has their equal share of problems. Factory workers serve as a representation of the common man in communist societies; they are barely making ends meet, and the government is