I wonder if this one deals with the unrest and changing times in China.
I remember reading about Pearl Buck going through the same incident as a child and as a mother with a child, and the reactions she and her mother before her faced from the Chinese person (different each time of course) the child had offended and the mother placated by speaking the Chinese way.
Towards the end she makes it clear she thought it was a mistake for US to break diplomatic relations with China when they went communist.