In a letter to Emma Goldman, Ba Jin once wrote of his feelings of inferiority among others in the movement who class background seemed more appropriate to their goals than his own "feudal or bourgeois origin." Goldman compassionately assured Ba Jin of his value to the cause:
| The bourgeois class very often produced active revolutionists. As a matter of fact, in our movement the greatest number of intellectual leaders come from that class. They have noticed social problems not because they themselves had a difficult life, but because they could not sit and watch the sufferings of the masses. Moreover, it is not your fault that you were born in a capitalist family. We cannot choose the place where we are to be born, but we decide ourselves about our life afterwards. I see you have honesty and enthusiasm, which every young rebel should have. I like this very much. 1 |