Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng
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Book Reviews of Life and Death in Shanghai
Book Review: Terrifying.
Summary: 5 Stars
As an employee of a foreign firm, the author was put in prison and heavily tortured. At first she didn't understand the questioning, but it appeared that high placed people wanted to discredit Chou en Lai, whom they regarded as the major obstacle to take the power in China after Mao's death. Chou had allowed foreign firms to operate in China. These high placed persons were Lin Piao and Mao's wife, Chiang Ching.Terrible portrait of Mao's wife: brutal, shameless promiscuous, murderess (Chou's adopted daughter was tortured to death), revengeful (film directors who had refused to cast her when she was an actress, were put to death). She was also responsible for the Tien An Men massacre, where thousands of Chou's supporters were killed.
Her husband on paper, Mao, reigned as an emperor. He believed that sexual liaisons with young virgins enhanced the chance of longevity in an old man.
Appalling picture of the Cultural Revolution: nobody had to study. One had to learn it by doing it, even surgeons.
One cannot believe how Nien Cheng managed to survive the exhausting tortures, and continued to behave as a human being.
A terrible read.
Book Review: The Very Best Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
Summary: 5 Stars
There is now an almost overwhelming amount of personal accounts of life during Mao's Cultural Revolution. The tales of atrocities and abuses are many, but this is a particularly extraordinary memoir, in my opinion the best of the lot.Nien Cheng suffered enormously, and her book recounts her persecution in amazing detail. She had more than 6 years to recall every degrading and unjust incident, and it is remarkably all here. Yet it is never for a moment boring or tedious. She writes beautifully and appreciatively of the tasty snack her cook gave her the day she went to be screamed at by an auditorium full of Red Guards. It is this extraordinary attention to simple goodness and the author's triumphant but humble survival that sets this book apart.
Someone said to me, "oh, I could never buy that book. I couldn't stand the pain." My friend was mistaken. Nien Cheng's book is about pain, but not defeat. To be sure, it is about the hellish consequences of a society gone mad, but her own clear conscience reigns supreme.
It is a quite beautiful story of the triumph of the human spirit. Outstanding.
Book Review: Awesome and powerfully written
Summary: 5 Stars
Aside from the City of Joy, this is the only one other book that has moved me to tears - all the more because I am an overseas Chinese living now in Malaysia, where my grandparents migrated to in the 1930s. Up until now, I have always regarded China as a remote nation totally unrelated to myself as an individual. I am now very curious about this country from which my family orginated. I want to visit China (a sort of home-coming?) and see how its people have managed to survive one misguided campaign after another, usually with the loss of millions of lives. Nien Cheng has reminded all of us of the privileges that we enjoy and take for granted, such as economic wealth, material comfort, family and friends, and most of all freedom of speech and movement. As a woman, she has inspired me with her intelligence and fortitude. In her place, I am almost certain I would not have lasted 6 weeks, much less 6 years. A must-read, I feel, especially for all Chinese people, both in China as well as abroad, (indeed for people everwhere in the world) lest we forget how blessed we are in today's modern world.Book Review: Wonderfully written, a book i'll never forget.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Life and Death in Shanghai" is a great and touching book about what happened to those during Mao's rule of China. I had to read it for an English class, and it really helped me learn a lot more about the Cultural Revolution and all that happened during the 50's in China. What makes this book even better is the fact that it was written by an actually survivor who spent many her years abroad, but decided to go back to China. It was depressing to hear of someone being put in solitary confinement just because they have different views on how the government was being ruled. Not to mention that she looses everything that she had before being imprisoned, and ended up with hardly anything or anyone to love. Just by reading the book, we can all imagine what one must have felt during this time of destruction, and hopefully learn from it. It's a good book to read if you want to learn more about the Cultural Revolution from a person who had traveled to all sorts of places in the world before ending up in prison.Book Review: Wonderfully written, a book i'll never forget.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Life and Death in Shanghai" is a great and touching book about what happened to those during Mao's rule of China. I had to read it for an English class, and it really helped me learn a lot more about the Cultural Revolution and all that happened during the 50's in China. What makes this book even better is the fact that it was written by an actual survivor who spent many her years abroad, but decided to go back to China. It was depressing to hear of someone being put in solitary confinement just because they have different views on how the government was being ruled. Not to mention that she looses everything that she had before being imprisoned, and ended up with hardly anything or anyone to love. Just by reading the book, we can all imagine what one must have felt during this time of destruction, and hopefully learn from it. It's a good book to read if you want to learn more about the Cultural Revolution from a person who had traveled to all sorts of places in the world before ending up in prison.