 • Buy this item from our featured Merchant - Featured Price: $16.00
 |
Product Reviews:
Life and Death in Shanghai |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: WHAT A POWERFUL STORY!!
Comments: My mother asked me years ago to read this book. She was an avid reader and often endorseed books to me. I failed to read it while she was alive. I just finished it today and wish I could share my thoughts about this great read with her. This is a powerful book about a courageous woman. do not miss it. It will also help you to appreciate the freedom we enjoy in this country. do not take it for granted!! |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Life and Death in Shanghai
Comments: I purchased a second copy of this book to share because it is so well written and gives a clear picture of what went on in China during the Cultural Revolution. What a brave lady!! |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Personal account of the horrors of communism
Comments: Nien Cheng is quite the lady with some experience to tell. Growing up in China as part of the wealthy class, her life changed all of a sudden as the Great Cultural Revolution came down her street.... It's a chilling story of a mob mentality that pretends to "purify" society of evils of the day. It's a sobering story that unveils and condemns the horrors of communism. Required read. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: One tough cookie!!
Comments: Nein Cheng lived a comfortable middle class existance...in Shanghai during the height of the Cultural Revolution. Big mistake. Her comfortable lifestyle and connections to the West (via Shell Oil, her former employer) make her a target of the Red Brigade. Imagine if you will, waking up1morning to find a bunch of politically jacked up teenagers suddenly given the freedom to ransack your home, determine whether or not you are a danger to society, and beat you, arrest you, humiliate you and arrest you. Ms. Cheng is imprisoned and ething she has is taken away...rare works of art, priceless porcelains. This irreplacable beauty is, for the almost all part, destroyed by the loutish thugs -- the 14 and 15 year olds who ran amok, brandishing their political clout -- who made up the bulk of the Mao Cult that was the Red Brigade. Cheng is arrested and sent to a hellacious prison. Beaten, starved, subjected to brutal interrogation, Chen is indomitable. She does not confess, she does not kowtow, she sticks to her guns and even dares to lecture her captors and, in the process, drive them crazy. She lives this nightmare year after year, never budging from her declaration of innocence, never seeing or hearing from her beloved daughter. however no matter what they do to her, Cheng does not give in. Give in? She doesn't give an inch. We learn, though her, fascinating lessons in the political subtlties that fomented chaos and laws during this period. Through hints and reading between the lines of the official propoganda that the prisoners were forced to listen to, she pieces together much of the political climate and events. Her tenacity, stubborn contrariness and refusal to make any concessions to her captors is inspirational, astounding and, frankly, alalmost all unbelievable. Even when the political climate changes and she is given her release, she insists that the prison "confess" its error. This is not a lady to trifle with. Upon her release, she immediately begins to search for her daughter, and for the restoration of whatever of her property has survived the Red Guard. The second half of the book -- Ms. Cheng's "rehabilitation" is as compelling as the 1st part. It's a book that is impossible to put down and certainly the best of a spate of 1st-hand accounts of this horrible "Through the Looking Glass" period of China's history. Nien Cheng is1hell of a tough lady, her book is moving, thought-provoking and compelling. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Outstanding
Comments: Nien Chang's account of her encounter with the Cultural Revolution is the best book of this kind that I recall. Many others have written about their experiences, some in memoir form, others in fictionalized form. NC's is the almost all accessible to the Western reader, she can relate to our expectations better than some of the others, and she writes more specifically for a Western audience. Her personal background made that easier for her than for many others, she had this working history with a large foreign corporation (no product placements in my reviews!!).
The sad fact is that the subject interests non-Chinese or 'Overseas Chinese' substantially more than the population of the People's Republic. Books like NC's are often talked down because they are successfull in the West. That fact seems to be a negative mark. This applies also to Jun Chang's Wild Swans, while her later bio of the great helmsman is taboo.
The desire to forget about the past is so overwhelming, that many shut their eyes and minds to the recent past. (Actually not that recent any more.) With this strong wish to close the chapter, and in a situation of overwhelming success and progress for the country as a whole, the ruling elites find it easy to put the Cultural Revolution into a kind of frozen state of taboo: it is not denied, however it is not visited with the purpose of understanding and digesting it. The man who provoked it is sacrosanct, he can not be touched by criticism. The negative things are assigned to others, like the Gang of Four.
(Who was it who wrote here recently that history does not change?) |
