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Title: Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng ISBN: 0-14-010870-X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (92 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Arrogant Views and Sympathy from a "CounterRevolutionary"
Comment: Though tedious at times, Nien Cheng's memoirs of her life in communist China, Life and Death in Shanghai, excels at creating empathy for the author, as well as in giving a detailed account of the situation and politics in the world in which Cheng was trapped. In her memoirs, Nien Cheng is able to extract compassion and sympathy from her readers. Rather than have readers in the scene, the book runs like a movie, with the reader looking on. In that perspective, the author used powerful descriptive language and basic emotions to have the reader relate to her situation. This draws the reader into both the tragic events that Cheng is going through and into her political views. This is a good addition because it is necessary for the success of political evolution throughout the book. Without the comprehension of politics in China that Cheng provides, a reader could easily get lost.
One of the pitfalls of Life and Death in Shanghai is the repetition of several scenarios. Perhaps the most overused in the book was Cheng's visits to prison hospitals. Though those events helped to add to Cheng's descriptions of living conditions, they seem to be unnecessary after a time. One other negative side to her book is that Cheng seems to take somewhat of an arrogant position towards the Communists. This seemed a bit presumptuous, because it seems like she sometimes got by because she was either lucky or naïve.
Overall, Life and Death in Shanghai is an incredible book. Though it has a few flaws, they can be overlooked by the powerful message that the books sends, the persistent viewpoint it represents, and the deep impact it leaves upon any reader.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Inspirational Book
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: arrogant views
Comment: this book was wonderful I couldn't put it down I read it several
times and it just got better. She made you really feel like you
were there. I only hope this is a continuation and not her only book. Get it it's worth it.
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