Cheng, Nien: Life and Death in Shanghai

Life and Death in Shanghai is the astonishing story of Nien Cheng, a cosmopolitan Chinese woman, who was an advisor for Shell in Shanghai when the Cultural Revolution broke out. Accused of being a spy, she refused to “confess” herself into “rehabilitation.” A friend had advised that “Party officials will never be satisfied with the confession. Once one starts confessing, they will demand more and more admissions of guilt, however false, and exert increasing pressure to get what they want. In the end, one will get into a tangle of untruths from which one can no longer extract oneself.” Ms. Cheng was placed in solitary for six-plus years maintaining she had nothing to confess, surviving abusive guards, brutal interrogations, meager rations, ill health, inexplicable discharges of blood, inclement weather, and squalid surroundings among other slings and arrows, while resisting threats from “rehabilitated” crowds screaming at her to “confess” as they had (seeking leniency by telling tales on one another), and treatment from untrained doctors (learn swimming by swimming, said Mao, and hospital coolies performed surgeries to learn surgeoning by surgeoning). The advent of Deng Xiao-ping following the death of Mao Tze-tung brought a thaw to the country and Ms. Cheng’s release, but not before she had undergone a host of Kafkaesque experiences. She was told her daughter (to whom the book is dedicated) had committed suicide, but learned later she had been murdered by Maoists for refusing to denounce her mother (like mother, like daughter). The book is a glowing testament to the wonder of the human spirit.