Life and Death in Shanghai

　　From Publishers Weekly
　　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... (展开全部) 　　From Publishers Weekly
　　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.　　

　　Nien Cheng(郑念), born in Beijing on January 28, 1915, is a Chinese-American author who recounted her harrowing experiences of the Cultural Revolution in her memoir Life and Death in Shanghai. Mrs. Cheng became a target of attack by Red Guards due to her management of a foreign firm in Shanghai, Shell. Maoist revolutionaries used this fact to claim that Ms. Cheng was a British spy in order to strike at Communist Party moderates for allowing the firm to operate in China after 1949.
　　Cheng endured six-and-a-half years of squalid and inhumane conditions in prison, all the while refusing to give any false confession. Her daughter Meiping Cheng(郑梅萍), a prominent Shanghai film actress, was murdered by Maoists after the young woman refused to denounce her mother. Mrs. Cheng was rehabilitated after the Gang of Four was arrested, and she used the opportunity to leave for the United States, as she was still a constant target of surveillance by those who wished her ill.

郑念：我的女儿 Version 2.0	来自Absurdfool	15 回应	2009-11-12
PDF中文版	来自加菲般的笨同学	10 回应	2009-11-12
郑念去世	来自台东镇	4 回应	2009-11-11
想看英文版	来自哭哭嫂周美清	1 回应	2009-11-11
郑念在华盛顿去世了，享年94岁。	来自唱诗班	7 回应	2009-11-11

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