Life and Death in Shanghai

by Nien Cheng

Overview

In August 1966 a group of Red Guards ransacked the home of Nien Cheng. Her background made her an obvious target for the fanatics of the Cultural Revolution: educated in London, the widow of an official of Chiang Kaishek's regime, and an employee of Shell Oil, Nien Cheng enjoyed comforts that few of her compatriots could afford. When she refused to confess that any of this made her an enemy of the state, she was placed in solitary confinement, where she would remain for more than six years. Life and Death in Shanghai is the powerful story of Nien Cheng's imprisonment, of the deprivation she endured, of her heroic resistance, and of her quest for justice when she was released. It is the story, too, of a country torn apart by the savage fight for power Mao Tse-tung launched in his campaign to topple party moderates. An incisive, rare personal account of a terrifying chapter in twentieth-century history, Life and Death in Shanghai is also an astounding portrait of one woman's courage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780006548614
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/01/1995
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.76(h) x 0.46(d)

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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