In the 18 years I lived at home, we never had a single conversation about current affairs or politics. I had a very minimal understanding of my country and was in no place to initiate discussion, and my parents were never enthusiastic enough to bring anything up. Then when I turned 18, I ended up at an English language-focused journalism school in Beijing. Since graduating, I have mostly worked in foreign newsrooms, something my parents couldn’t have fathomed when I was a child. Covering China’s domestic social news beat, I was both allowed and required to seek out information not already blocked by the “wall.” I began to share some of it with my parents. When they learned about an event that Xinwen Lianbo didn’t cover they usually welcomed the new information with a bit of astonishment, but never doubt.