Life and Death in Shanghai

by Nien Cheng

Overview

A first-hand account of China's cultural revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780007375615
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/19/2010
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishers
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	608,879
File size:	574 KB

About the Author

Nien Cheng, an anglophile and fluent English-speaker who worked for Shell in Shanghai under Mao, was put under house arrest by Red Guards in 1966 and subsequently jailed.

Table of Contents

I	The Wind of Revolution
1	Witch-hunt	3
2	Interval before the Storm	37
3	The Red Guards	69
4	House Arrest	96
II	The Detention House
5	Solitary Confinement	125
6	Interrogation	145
7	The January Revolution and Military Control	170
8	Party Factions	202
9	Persecution Continued	243
10	My Brother's Confession	277
11	A Kind of Torture	301
12	Release	334
III	My Struggle for Justice
13	Where Is Meiping?	357
14	The Search for the Truth	383
15	A Student Who Was Different	410
16	The Death of Mao	444
17	Rehabilitation	479
18	Farewell to Shanghai	504
	Epilogue	537
	Index	545

Editorial Reviews

This gripping account of a woman caught up in the maelstrom of China's Cultural Revolution begins quietly. In 1966, only the merest rumblings of political upheaval disturbed the gracious life of the author, widow of the manager of Shell Petroleum in China. As the rumblings fast became a cataclysm, Cheng found herself a target of the revolution: Red Guards looted her home, literally grinding underfoot her antique porcelain and jade treasures; and she was summarily imprisoned, falsely accused of espionage. Despite harsh privationeven tortureshe refused to confess and was kept in solitary confinement for over six years, suffering deteriorating health and mounting anxiety about the fate of her only child, Meiping. When the political climate softened, and she was released, Cheng learned that her fears were justified: Meiping had been beaten to death when she refused to denounce her mother. The candor and intimacy of this affecting memoir make it addictive reading. Its intelligence, passion and insight assure its place among the distinguished voices of our age proclaiming the ascendancy of the human spirit over tyranny. Cheng is now a U.S. resident. BOMC main selection; author tour. (June 1)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Cheng's widely acclaimed book recounts in compelling specifics her persecution and imprisonment at the hands of Mao Zedong's ``Cultural Revolution'' (1966-1976). Inquisitors accused her of being a ``spy'' and ``imperialist,'' but during the harrowing years of solitary confinement she never gave in, never confessed a lie. We read this, not so much for historical analysis, but, like the literature of the Gulag in Russia, for an example of a humane spirit telling terrible truths honestly, without bitterness or cynicism. Highly recommended. BOMC main selection. Charles W. Hayford, History Dept., Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill.

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