Life and Death in Shanghai
by Nien Cheng
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nien ChengEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1988-05-03
ISBN: 014010870X
Number of pages: 547
Publisher: Penguin
Book Reviews of Life and Death in Shanghai
Book Review: Excellent history of the Cultural Revolution
Summary: 4 Stars
The book is author Nien Cheng's autobiography of her experiences during the Cultural Revolution. When the Cultural Revolution started she was the head of the British Oil company, Shell, in Shanghai. She got the post after her husband, whom she had met in England where she was studying, died while serving in his post as the head of the company. Madness begins to creep in slowly but surely during those early days of the Cultural Revolution, which causes Cheng, a crème-de-la-crème of cosmopolitan Shanghai, to find herself in the maelstrom. Initially, she was invited to witness the sessions where a former colleague was subject to interrogations. Soon becomes the target of the sessions and proletariats find in her a perfect enemy: a British-educated, sophisticated and a privileged member of Shanghai's high society.
One of the proletariats tells her, quoting Mao. "If poisonous weeds are not removed, scented flowers cannot grow." She was subsequently asked to confess for what they alleged was her role as a spy for foreign governments, by which they meant the British. She defends herself spiritedly and refuses to give into their demand that she "express her guilt" and "confess her mistakes." She says she had not done anything wrong. She describes the scenes of the struggle sessions very vividly and in almost novelistic detail.
Outside, much was happening since it was around that time Mao Tse-tung rails against the Communist Party and charged Liu Shao Chi, chairman of the People's Republic, and Deng Xiaoping, who controlled the defence through Defence Minister, Lin Piao, for siding with the capitalists. Mao blamed them for China's economic woes, following the Great Leap Forward Campaign of 1958-60. Liu expression of his guilt rather than helping him jeorpardizes his position as it paves way for Maosts to attack him more. The Cultural Revolution gains a new lease of life.
Since she refuses to make a false confession, she was taken to prison, "The No. 1 Detention Center" where she was asked to read the Little Red Book and Mao's Collected Works of Mao Tze-tung. There she was put through intense sessions of interrogation where she was asked to confess. She holds her ground, refusing to submit. "I would rather die then tell a lie," she says. During one of the struggle sessions, she was asked a question about a British diplomat friend of Cheng, named Scott, with whom they accuse her of having had an illicit relationship. She vehemently rejects the miscellaneous allegations but soon as hear health deteriorates as a result of prolonged incarceration and humiliation a certain a sense of vulnerability begins to set in. "My spirit of bravado deserted me and I became really frightened, not because I was burdened with a sense of guilt but because I feared that the task of defending myself be beyond my ability."
During those years, she reads what was happening outside through Shanghai's Liberation Daily, through which she learns of the outhrow of Shanghai Municipal Government. She suffers from pneumonia and when she recovers she finds herself in prison and occasionally reads from Mao. She expresses her admiration for Mao's brilliance as a military strategist, particularly in guerilla warfare. " While his essays on Marxist principles are half-baked, his essay on guerilla warfare was, I thought, a masterpiece of clear thinking based on his experience in the Communist Party." She writes to the Workers Propaganda team to clear her from accusations. One day, seeing her position as quite similar to Liu Sao Chi, she even questions the accusations against Liu during one of the struggle sessions. (Following Mao's death in 1976, it was found Mao's wife and some others had had created false evidence against Liu). After six and half years of imprisonment, torture and interrogation she was released. When she was released, a file on her said that even though she was very stubborn, during her six and half years in the prison she had "observed a certain degree of improvement in her way of thinking and an attitude of repentence. We have therefore, decided to show her proletarian magnamity by refraining from pressing charges against her and allowing her to leave the detention house as a free person." After her release, she also hears of her daughter's death by suicide on 16th June 1967 for which she seeks justice, though in vain. She also begins life as an English teacher.
Chou En-Lai dies and soon thereafter Mao fell ill. Deng Xiao-ping was fired from his post as vice chairman; he was replaced by Hua Guo-feng. After Mao's death, Deng rises again, ousting Hua, and kickstarting the economic reform in 1979, a year after he had visited the US. China opened its doors to foreign firms. More things change, more remains the same. British Petroleum was the first to open offices and Shell was also invited for conduct offshore drilling. Soon she gets a visa and travels on the plane on a first class ticket to the US, gifted to her by Shell. On the plane, the airhostess asks her, if she wanted Bloody Mary or Screwdriver. "It was then I realized that bloody Mary was merely a drink and screw driver in this case was not for putting in or loosening nails."
Summary of Life and Death in Shanghai
Here is the haunting, inspirational account of Nien Cheng's six-and-a-half years as a political prisoner during Communist China's Cultural Revolution. "A moving affirmation of the capacity for human endurance."--Los Angeles Times.Memoirs Books
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