Recovering Histories. Nicholas Bartlett

actors more generally—under the Xi government. I saw, in his quiet indifference to the incredulous comment of the younger passerby, his strength in enduring frequent slights that included discrimination at hotels and an encounter with a shop operator who (knowing his history) refused to touch money that Xun placed on the counter to make a purchase. But this was also an instance of Xun’s self-reliance and stubborn ability to forge his own way. His patient resourcefulness also helped him to produce a budget, write grant applications, and become a steady leader of his NGO. These were qualities he attributed to his entrepreneurial past on the mountain. More than anything, Xun’s successful recovery of his keys, to me, represented his tenacity in keeping his future open at a time when many with his background faced difficult prospects.

      Xun and I never discussed the key-fishing episode. Indeed, perhaps the meaning I have bestowed on this event is more a product of my own projections and associations than a reflection of the significance it held for him. In making these connections, however, I draw on conversations that occurred over a number of years as well as my sense of his patterns of moving in and making sense of the world. I thought I could feel Xun finding the pleasures of rediscovering his own inventiveness as he opened doors that appeared to have closed on him. Subtle, situated acts like this one were part of how the past came to be negotiated and a “return to society” enacted.