An astounding portrait of one woman’s courage, Life and Death in Shanghai is also a penetrating account of a terrifying chapter in twentieth-century history. Life and Death in Shanghai is the powerful story of Cheng’s imprisonment, of the deprivation she endured, of her heroic resistance, and of her quest for justice when she was released. When she refused to confess that she was an enemy of the state, she was imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement, where she remained for more than six years. Educated at the London School of Economics, the widow of an official of Chiang Kai-shek’s regime, and an employee of Shell Oil, Cheng enjoyed comforts that few Chinese could afford. Her background made her an obvious target. In August 1966, a group of Red Guards ransacked Nien Cheng’s home. This phenomenal, unforgettable book captured the attention of the world just as Communism started to collapse, and is considered a twentieth-century classic, both for Cheng’s incisive writing and the light it throws on totalitarian history. BOMC main selection author tour.Ĭopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.Upon its initial publication, Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng’s searing memoir of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, was an instant international best seller.

Its intelligence, passion and insight assure its place among the distinguished voices of our age proclaiming the ascendancy of the human spirit over tyranny. The candor and intimacy of this affecting memoir make it addictive reading. 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. Hua Guofeng was instrumental in getting rid of the Red Guard's 'Gang of Four', leaders of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. 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. Because of 'Life and Death in Shanghai', I learned how my Fuzhou, Fujian, CHINA friend's mother gave him the name of GUOFENG. 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. 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. This gripping account of a woman caught up in the maelstrom of China's Cultural Revolution begins quietly.

Life and death in shanghai