"When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family"

Maya Lin's quote shows the experience of a family that was separated from the outside world. The family was so isolated that they got letters from China written in Chinese, and even those letters were censored. This suggests that the household was not enabled to have contact with the outdoors world, and that the federal government was actively trying to avoid them from doing so. This could be due to a range of factors, such as political or faiths, or even a worry of the unidentified. Whatever the reason, it is clear that Maya Lin's family was extremely insular and kept to themselves. This quote is a pointer of the importance of staying linked to the world around us, and of the dangers of becoming too separated.