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Summary: The BEST kevin duggan
Review: This is a book you cant put down, it has its own momentum. A great book to help a person imagine what life under Mao and the Cultural Revolution was like.Wild Swans was good but not even in the same league as Life and Death RIVETING its electric.....
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Summary: far better than wild swans
Review: This book is a good source for learning more about China during cultural revolution. Far better than "Wild swans" by Jung Chang, which seems to be more popular mainly due to its writing style being obviously aimed at Western readers. Nien Cheng writes matter of factly, with little emotion, which is a plus if someone wants to attempt to portray objectively a historical period. However, what bothered me in this book was obvious prejudice and lack of sympathy for members of classes other than her own. She states that her daughter had some friends from worker's and peasants family probably because party made her feel guilty of her family background. She seems to be unable to comprehend that young people adapt and rarely choose to live in the past like she did. I have grown up in a socialist country (I have left after getting my Ph D and finding a job abroad), and when communists gained power they have confiscated most of the property belonging to our family. The author reminds me a lot of my grandmother, who is also very strong woman, but who has also chosen to live in the past, who disapproved of our friends if they had different family background (worker or peasant), insisted on having servants when nobody else did, but fortunately managed to stay out of trouble mainly because grandfather was army officer (though he never advanced above the rank of the captain, due to family background). Because of her, my dislike for any kind of prejudice is about as strong as my dislike for communism, so that I didn't really enjoy this book. Ms. Cheng has without a doubt suffered a lot, and nobody deserves to go through that, but I find it really hard to feel for her since she obviously seems to think herself much better than her fellow humans who happen to hsve less money than she does.
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Summary: Life and Death in Shanghai
Review: From the beginning to the end of this incredible story, Nien Cheng sounds like an amazing person. After Cheng's husband died, she successfully took over his position at the Shell office and raised their only daughter. Although Cheng's life was progressing well and undisturbed at the beginning of the Communist takeover in the early 1950s, her life was quickly turned upside down when she was persecuted for being wealthy. I was shocked as I read her accounts of the struggle meetings, interrogations, and years in the detention house. I was disturbed at how easily a roomful of people could be persuaded to turn on their companions. Cheng sent a clear message interrogations were not meant to clarify anything, rather they were meant to trick or force the victim into committing or confessing a crime. Another disturbing aspect emphasized by Cheng was the way in which the government could so quickly change its views and policies. Even worse than this was how rapidly the masses would accept the propaganda. Cheng's six and one-half year detainment is depicted so well that I could not believe that she was able to survive the suffering, both physically and emotionally. Although Cheng's story is a unique case, through this book she told the series of events that took place in China and their influences. Cheng told of the influence of an event by telling her individual thoughts. For example, on page 479 Cheng wrote, "For so many years I had waited for Mao to die. When I was in prison, I was desperate enough to pray for it to happen. Now that he had really died, I did not know how to proceed." Although Mao had been a tyrannical leader, he had drastically changed life in China. The idea that many people were unsure of how to live without Mao in charge is clearly portrayed through Cheng's writing of her personal experience. Her writing is incredibly drawing and engaging. The many different characters created several perspectives of Communist China. Throughout the book, Cheng's use of details allowed me to understand the sentiments of each character, and she built up each occurrence so that I could not put the book down until I found out how the incident ended. Reading about Cheng's quick-thinking, wit, and logic amazed me again and again through the final chapter. All of this kept me enthralled throughout the entire story.
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Summary: A Heroine's DETAILED Struggle through Communist China
Review: In 1966 the Cultural Revolution began and Nien Cheng's background made her a perfect target for the Red Guards. Because she was unrelenting in her spirit she was thrown in to jail and tortured for six and a half years. Life and Death in Shanghai is the true life tale of Nien Cheng, a heroine whose powerful mind and spirit allowed her to survive one of the worst times in China's illustrious past. This book was very enjoyable and I recommend it, but there were still a few problems with it. For one looking for a tale about the strength of the mind, it's here. For one looking for a background on China during this very controversial time, it's here. This book shows how strong the human spirit can be when faced with a terrible situation. The fact that Nien survived this, without giving up her values, is amazing. It's hard to believe her amazing memory and as I read further into the novel, it seemed almost as if she had embellished her story, despite her disclaimer. There is also so much information about China. At times this book sounded like a textbook. If it were not for the fact that I had already learned most of the historical background of the memoir in history class, I would have enjoyed these sections of the book more. Yet, despite these minor problems, I still learned about the harsh realities of prison life and some of the extremes taken by Mao to control China. These parts of the book were great and enlightening. The biggest problem that I had with the book was that it was drawn out towards the end. Once Nien was released from jail, the pace of the book slows greatly. She just started talking about everything that happened from her release from jail until she left for America. The whole third section of the book could have been shortened by a couple of chapters. I hate to say this, but if I were reading this book for leisure, I would have skipped much of the last section. If you can deal with the end of the book, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about China's past, or just wants to read a good novel. It is simple to follow, and Nien provides information to fill in the gaps of China's situation and its relation to her situation, making this novel enjoyable overall.
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Summary: An Inspirational Book
Review: Life and Death in Shanghai, written by Nien Cheng, is an autobiographical account of the events in her life during the Cultural Revolution in communist China. Accused of being a foreign spy because of her job with a British company, Cheng is incarcerated and forced to suffer physical and mental tortures. During the time when false confessions were common, Cheng is driven in the opposite direction by a statement made by a former co-worker: "... the Party officials often include people whom they dislike, such as those who are disgruntled and troublesome, in the list of enemies. But no individual should make a false confession, no matter how great the pressure is. That has always been my policy during each political movement." Cheng, displaying incredible bravery and intelligence, is able to see beyond the hazy lies of the government officials and see its hypocrisy clearly. She has answers for everything - she returns the blows, one by one. For example, when her guards reprimands her for cleaning her cell, she replies, "I cleaned it according to Chairman Mao's teaching on hygiene" and proceeds to repeat quotation from the Little Red Book. When accused of being "unpatriotic" to her country by dancing with a foreigner, she retorts that she was "useful," because she made the man she danced with unpatriotic to his country by dancing with her. In her book, Cheng also portrays how familial relationships were affected by the manipulations of the Chinese government. It was really sad when she learns that her brother falsely confessed and stated that she is a spy and that she forced him to take her to the Sun Yatsen Memorial in Nanjing and took a picture in front of the Kuomintang flag. She wonders about the torture they must have put him through to say that - "What had the Maoists done to my poor brother to make him lie like that? I could imagine the agony he must have gone through before he succumbed to their pressure." This reminded me of one of the themes from Machiavelli's The Prince; that it is "better to be feared than loved." The communist government must have known that fear keeps people from doing things to harm the people they fear, whereas it is easier to betray someone you love because there are no significant short-term consequences. Throughout the book, I marveled at Cheng's acuity in seeing through fake people - when a man posing as a friend of her daughter comes to see her, she is able to tell that he really did not know her daughter and tells him forcefully that the should never visit her again because he works for a secret lab at a factory and that that will make her look bad I the eyes of the communist officials. I was also amazed at her incredible heroism - any other person would have buckled under the pressure of the Communist regime... Cheng never seems to complain or whine, even when things get really bad. Instead, she holds onto the belief that she did nothing wrong and she tries everything to get herself out of her terrible position. Cheng's generosity is also to be commended. When the Red Guards comes to ransack her home, she is able to save some of the priceless art, her heritage and culture, from being destroyed by telling them that they are worth a lot of money and would be invaluable to the government. After her release, she declines to sell any of the pieces - instead, she freely gives them to the Chinese museum, even after her long imprisonment. In all, I really enjoyed reading this book. Life and Death in Shanghai showed that the human spirit is resilient and that when people have the will to live and survive, they indeed can and accomplish a lot with their lives. I am glad that she was able to write this book because books like this are inspirations to people all around the world - that they may not despair and give up. I can only hope that we will all be able to show such courage under awful conditions and prevail even when our hope is running rather low.
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Summary: Life and Death in Shanghai
Review: Life and Death in Shanghai is the autobiography of Nien Cheng, a remarkable woman who survived six and a half years of incarceration during China's Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong. Her haunting memoirs depict vivid images of her struggles and triumphs throughout her oppressed years in China. The book begins with a story of her life prior to her persecution, and the striking contrast of her two separate life styles is extraordinary. Nien Cheng is masterful at relating her story to the world, and her tale is both inspiring and educational. Nien Cheng took me on a roller coaster ride, beginning with the first knock on her door by the Red Guards. The pain that she felt while she had strong metal handcuffs cutting into her wrists radiates through the book. She vividly recounts the moment of peace and quiet between the darkness of the night and the first light of morning when she would feel a sense of renewal and know that she could make it through another day. Nien Cheng strongly believed that she was innocent and had nothing to confess to the government. It was her strong belief in herself and her family that got her through the Cultural Revolution alive. I realized that I will never know what it means to be free until I am faced with the horrors of incarceration. I truly believe that she is an exceptional woman with a strong belief in her country, and if someone else was in her shoes there is an unlikely chance that they would have survived.
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Summary: An amazing read!
Review: Nien Cheng's "Life and Death in Shanghai" is a personal account of a woman's life during the cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong in china. In 1966, a group of Red Guards breaks into her house and takes Nien Cheng captive, under the notion that she is a "spy" for the imperialists. For siz years, she remains in prison. The story focuses on those years and how she dealt with herself and her captors. The most amazing part of this book is that, even under the pressure of countless interrogations and relentless accusations, Cheng does not confess and does not lie. "The more logical and intelligent course was to face persecution no matter what I might have to endure," says Cheng. Even after six years of torture, Mrs. Cheng still stays strong, and it is only because of her strength and determination (and maybe even stubbornness) that she is able to survive. One might read this book not only for historical analysis of the time period, but for some sort of insight as to what it was actually like to be in this woman's shoes, or just to be living in such a paranoid society. "Determined to find fault, the Revolutionaries refused to see virtue." It didn't matter whether or not one actually committed a crime--it merely mattered whether one was thought to have committed a crime. Nien Cheng pulls the reader into her story through her vivid descriptions and heart-wrenching discourses. One cannot help to sympathize with this woman and after reading her story, it almost feels like one could know what it was like to be in her position. It's a frightening thought, but that is what makes the story so absorbing.
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Summary: Triumph in the Midst of Adversity
Review: This book tells an extraordinary story that would only take shape in our imaginations with superheroes. Life and Death in Shanghai is not about Batman, Superman, or Spiderman, but it is the riveting life story of Nien Cheng. It was truly amazing to see how an individual could possibly live through such an ordeal and put it on paper for the world to read. Life and Death in Shanghai is not only a factual account of Nien Cheng¡¯s life, but it is also a source of historical information from the time of Mao Zedong¡¯s rule in China. The trials and tribulations that Cheng endured all added to the historical information that is presented in this book. Cheng is very meticulous in that she writes her personal story relevant to the historical events that are taking place around her. The use of such detailed historical evidence helps bring the story of her life to reality. What was quite appealing to my enjoyment also turned out to be a great historical lesson to me that all should be able to learn. At times throughout the book, there are some scenes that appear to be long and tedious, but despite that factor the book moves along in a smooth fashion. Cheng intertwines her human emotions with all the things horrible things that are occurring. Every moment that Cheng spends in the detention center is told descriptively throughout the book. She tells the reader, in detail, the interrogations, the torture, the emotions, the uprisings, and to say it all in one word, everything. There is one portion of the book where Cheng is tortured in handcuffs. As one reads every word in that portion of the book, one cannot help but to look back and forth to her picture on the cover. Questions begin to fill the mind of the reader, especially those that question one¡¯s character and integrity. These questions progressively cause the reader to put himself or herself in Cheng¡¯s position at the time. As a reader, one is able to empathize with Cheng and at the same time learn the intricate history of China. Although there are no superheroes that have magic capes in this book, Nien Cheng comes close to a character with a lot of courage, strength, and ambition to overcome the impossible.
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Summary: Surviving the criminal Mao Zedong
Review: This is the book for the next one thousand years. Her survival is a testament of her mind over her torturers, led by Mao Zedong, his gangsters and fanatics. She tells her life of horrors prior to and during the Cultural Revolution. Not even Steven King or Alfred Hitchcock could've come up with this kind of human torture chamber. The book was spellbinding -- you can't put it down even if your not an avid reader. If there is such a list, this book should be one of the great works of the 20th Century. Long live Nien Cheng.
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Summary: Thank you, Nien Cheng
Review: After I arrived in the US in 1994, a friend lent me a copy of "Life and Death in Shanghai". I cried many times while reading it. It brought back my miserable childhood and the humiliation and suffering I and my family had experienced in China. It was then that the idea was born to share my story about how a little class enemy became a world citizen and my book "Flying High out of a Tibetan Valley" came into being. Thank you, Nien Cheng. I grew up in an isolated Tibetan town in western Sichuan Province. At the age of 12, I witnessed a "struggle meeting" in which my parents were denounced as enemies of the state and repeatedly beaten. Soon both my parents were jailed and I had to live on my own. During high school and in the countryside as an Educated Youth, I was often chastised and shunned, not only for my family background, but also for my unusual ambition to become a writer and translator and to fly high out of a Tibetan valley as a world citizen. Nien Cheng suffered unthinkable persecution as an adult during the ten years of madness, while I suffered oppression as a child. So I wrote of the Cultural Revolution from a child's point of view. Nien Cheng came from Shanghai, the biggest city in China, while I came from an isolated Tibetan valley. As you read such personnal stories you will get a better understanding of what Chinese children and adults went through during Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Thanks to Nien Cheng, Americans can know what Life and Death under a dictatorship is like.
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