Yet, like many other overseas Chinese families who returned to build businesses in China, after the Chinese Communists took control of the government in 1949, the Ou-yang's were labeled members of the landlord class. The parents were put in jail for a year where every day they were forced to kneel on broken glass and "confess their sins." Even the Mexican-born matriarch was unable to escape punishment.
像許許多多回鄉置產的華僑家庭一樣，在一九四九年共黨統治後，歐陽一家被冠上「大地主」的罪名，父母被關進土牢一年，每天跪在玻璃屑上懺悔告白，連墨西哥籍的母親也不能倖免。