Life and Death in Shanghai

Remarkable book about a remarkable person during a painful moment in history.

It is amazing to read the words of a lady who was a wealthy, well-educated, socialite... yet lived through the intense struggle of the Cultural Revolution. Her insight of this unbelievable era of China-lost, should be added to every history book! Nien Cheng lost everything except her own life...and she endured prison through many months of near starvation...somehow keeping her sanity through it all. She watched as the young, power-hungry, Red Guard took over her home, showing no regard toward human rights....showing no form of civility or decency. They detroyed her (China's) valuable collections... irreplacible, historical items. This is a strong woman who persevered without losing her dignity. I can only wish I could stand strong if held under such persecution. She writes her story in a way that holds the readers attention, from the first page to the last. I have visited China on several occasions, and when I am there, I am always reminded of Nien Cheng's life in Shanghai. A story that everyone should have knowledge of....I highly recommend this book.

I never thought that I could love a true account of tragedy, suffering, and grave injustice, but I have to admit that I love "Life and Death in Shanghai". I don't mean that I read this book for entertainment or recommend it to everybody. Like some of the works of Solzhenitsyn or Elie Weisel, the subject of Nien Cheng's book is real, painful, and sometimes very difficult to read. Yet I find myself constantly rereading "Life and Death in Shanghai" and it is one of the few books I refuse to part with. How can this be?Nien Cheng writes of personal loss, suffering, and injustice with unusually lucid and mature prose. She is impressive as story teller, an historian, but most of all as a writer. One of the most effective qualities of Nien Cheng's writing is the remarkable restraint she employs when describing unfair and frankly inhumane actions perpetrated against her and her family. She describes her arrest, captivity, and daily efforts to challenge her tormentors with cool objectivity. One of the most impressive parts of the book is the account of how Nien Cheng studied Chairman Mao's collected works in prison. Despite the fact that Mao's policies had personally harmed her and were tearing China apart, she studied his works in earnest and evaluated them objectively. She concluded that Mao was a brilliant guerrilla warfare strategist but that he was only capable of destruction, not creativity.Nien Cheng enhances her personal narrative by describing relevant Chinese historical events. As a result, the reader acquires a sense of context and is better able to understand why certain things happen to her. For example, Nien Cheng is repeatedly persecuted for her alleged support of Liu Xiaoqi. During one of her interrogations she is bold enough to declare that his policies, as elucidated by her jailers, sound perfectly sensible. Then after years in captivity, she is suddenly treated with more kindness and praised for her positive remarks about Liu Xiaoqi. Nien Cheng explains to the reader that during this time, political tidings had turned against the radical Gang of Four and that moderate factions in the Chinese Communist Party had rehabilitated Liu Xiaoqi.I recommend this book to anyone interested in modern Chinese history, in survival and triumph, or to anyone who enjoys encountering the English language at its best. My deep respect and appreciation go out to Nien Cheng.