book data
993 ratings,
4.31
average rating, 253 reviews
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published
May 3rd 1988
(first published 1986)
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
binding
Paperback, 560 pages
isbn
014010870X
(isbn13: 9780140108705)
description
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....more
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avg 4.31
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in December, 2002
This book is one that I would definitely recommend to all readers. It is eloquently written and very engaging. It chronicles the imprisonment of a Western-educated business woman living in China during the Cultural Revolution.
It is a very intimate look at Mao Tse-Tung and how his philosophies affected the Chinese people--and not for the better. Mrs. Cheng is a wonderful narrator and writes a very excellent true story.
Recommended to all who like an intense story of human s...more
It is a very intimate look at Mao Tse-Tung and how his philosophies affected the Chinese people--and not for the better. Mrs. Cheng is a wonderful narrator and writes a very excellent true story.
Recommended to all who like an intense story of human s...more
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Read in January, 2000
This is a remarkable autobiography for several reasons: one - Nien Cheng wrote this later in her life - I want to say her 50's or 60's in English, not her native language. Secondly, it is an amazing account of the cultural revolution in China during the 60's, political and cultural events that leave an eerie sense of deja-vu. Thirdly, this woman was wrongfully arrested, and even though she could have been released if she had lied, she told the truth - every time she was interrogated - and was...more
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Read in March, 2005
this is a fantastic introduction to anyone who wants to know about the nightmare-on-earth that was the Cultural Revolution in china from 1966 to 1976. it is a memoir, but it reads like a novel, which is really the whole point. the truth of this decade was more amazing than most novelists could dream up.
the only thing i didn't like was that she had all this word-for-word dialogue from her countless interrogation sessions, and she remembers exactly who was in the room and where they ...more
the only thing i didn't like was that she had all this word-for-word dialogue from her countless interrogation sessions, and she remembers exactly who was in the room and where they ...more
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Read in June, 2007
An amazing book by an amazing women. While Nien Cheng tellingly analyzes her own experience as a prisoner in communist China, she goes beyond herself and describes how individuals and communities responded to the pressures of communism and a cultural revolution.
I particularly enjoyed the second half of the book describing her life after prison, the political mood of the country, and what the future might look like.
This is a great book for people without any background on China's mode...more
I particularly enjoyed the second half of the book describing her life after prison, the political mood of the country, and what the future might look like.
This is a great book for people without any background on China's mode...more
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Read in September, 2007
Nien Cheng was an amazingly intelligent, courageous, honorable, and patriotic individual despite being betrayed by the chinese government during the cult revolution years. i was full of admiration for her by the end of the life and was really touched by her ability to forgive even the most unforgivable acts...not exactly a light read, but i was hooked and read this in a day. thanks lilian for recommending this to me.
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Read in January, 1996
I borrowed this book, not being really shure of what I was going to find in it. However as soon as I started reading it I just couldn't put it down. I was hooked by Nien Cheng's account of her own experience in communist China. How she lost everything that mattered to her. How she survived the abuse and violence of the revolutionaries. How she coped with everyday situations during that time. She's a true survivor and a live witness of China's history in the 20th century.
The book is ...more
The book is ...more
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Read in December, 2009
I think this book might have changed my outlook on life. She was a woman living her life, thinking that perhaps the political breezes weren't exactly blowing her way but at the worst they'd just blow by -- and then she spent 6 years in solitary confinement, through freezing cold and starvation, to be "rehabiliatated" by the Chinese government. Truly a story of courage and a testament to her force of character, but for my little Marin life it made me consider that the plans you lay so...more
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Read in January, 2009
This book was amazing. I didn't give it five stars because it lagged in some places. But her narration of the horrendous things that happened during China's cultural revolution make me ashamed that we weren't studying this in school when it was going on and shortly after. Why do we ignore Asia in our Social Studies classes? Her memory is incredible, and her accounts of real-life communism experiences make it easy to see why this system of government never works in practice. Her courage was extre...more
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Read in May, 1989
Began this book while studying and then backpacking in Asia in 1989. I can still remember flying into the Hong Kong airport reading this book, a sunny day, a beautiful port city and reading the intensity of one family's nightmare of living through the Cultural Revolution.
Just turns out that summer I went to Asia, was the same summer the Chinese army killed 3,000+ students in Tiananmen Square on June 4th. Seeing the protesters in HKG and no being allowed to travel to the mainland this b...more
Just turns out that summer I went to Asia, was the same summer the Chinese army killed 3,000+ students in Tiananmen Square on June 4th. Seeing the protesters in HKG and no being allowed to travel to the mainland this b...more
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Read in April, 2009
This is a must read for everyone - a real eye opener. I bought this book at a previous book club and opened its pages kicking and screaming. I did not want to read this book. BUT I loved it even more the 2nd time. This is a tribute to the stamina of the human spirit and the will to live. I am in awe of Cheng's mental ability. It also stands as a witness to the cruelty man does to man. This book seems even more pertinent because of today's political "struggles." I am seeing simi...more
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Read in February, 2009
This was one of the most remarkable books I've read. Nien Cheng is an amazing person to have withstood the physical, emotional and mental challenge of surviving not only 6 1/2 years in a Chinese solitary prison cell but then 7 more years of being spied on after her release. Her strength of character, faith, confidence, intellect, and dignity make her one of the most inspiring people I've read about. It makes any problems I have in my life seem small and trivial in comparison. I learned much ...more
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I didn't know if I'd like this book, but I tackled it for book club, and I'm glad I read it. I knew a little about the cultural revolution in Maoist China, but to read about it from the author's point of view was very enlightening. She was falsely accused of various ridiculous charges and held in prison for seven years (her real "crime" was being a wealthy capitalist). To read of her struggles, her amazing strength, and her persistence in clearing her name and getting her life back ...more
Life and Death in Shanghai is Nien Cheng’s personal memoire and it provides a fascinating (as well as heartbreaking) look at the Chinese Cultural Revolution and life under Chairman Mao during the 1960s and 1970s. The author spent
6½ years in prison/solitary confinement because the communists believed she was a capitalist. Cheng was college educated, was part of the Chinese upper-middle class and her husband had worked in the Shanghai office of a foreign oil corporation. This was enough ...more
6½ years in prison/solitary confinement because the communists believed she was a capitalist. Cheng was college educated, was part of the Chinese upper-middle class and her husband had worked in the Shanghai office of a foreign oil corporation. This was enough ...more
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Read in May, 2008
This book is Nien Cheng's experience during the Cultural Revolution in China. It is fascinating. She was imprisoned for 6 1/2 years and considered an "enemy to the people" nearly until the time she left China in 1980. The reason for her imprisonment was that she was considered a capitalist and a"free thinker". Her courage throughout her struggles and her ability to reason even under great duress is inspiring. The political turmoil that China has endured is hard to believ...more
Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
those who love China and stores of bravery
Nien Cheng is really a remarkable woman! She was falsely imprisoned during China's Cultural Revolution and her daughter was listed as a "suiside" even though she was no doubt tortured to death. The shifting sands of communist control was a struggle to feret out and her only resource was her valient insistance that she was not guilty and had no need to confess. Her bravery and adherance to truth under the vilest conditions and torture are really breathtaking.
I fould it di...more
I fould it di...more
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Read in March, 2008
After my second time reading this book (the first was a few years ago in college) I'm pleased to discover that it's really as powerful and moving as I remember it being. I read it this time with my husband and it was awesome to have someone to talk about it with. Although, the number of times in our discussions that one or the other would say, "I just can't believe such a thing could happen" are too many to count. As depressing and unbelievable as it is for me to contemplate Cheng's st...more
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Read in February, 2009
I just finished this book; an incredible woman's true account of her life in China, imprisoned in solitary confinement for over six years during the Cultural Revolution. I can't walk down the streets of China now without looking at people old enough to have been alive during the Mao-caused ten-year nightmare and wonder,"What did these poor people suffer?" This best-seller is a must read. How I wish I could recommend it to all my Chinese students, but this book is silenced here in Ch...more
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Read in January, 1992
I read this book shortly after my first trip to Shanghai in 1992. At the time it resonated with me as I had just seen many of the places she mentions in her book, from the French Consession, to the Park Hotel (which is next door to my Shanghai office). The story, an autobiography of her life during the cultural revolution, tells the sad honest truth of what Mao's revolution did to the cultural and educated. The guise of permenant revolution is nothing more than an excuse to torture and maim, ...more
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Read in April, 2009
This autobiographical account of life for Nien Cheng during the "Cultural Revolution" in China was incredible. I learned so much about history, communism and, most importantly, the strength of the human spirit. I can't even express my emotional response to her story; the hypocrisy, the injustice, the suffering is unbelievable to me. I had no frame of reference for her detailed account of her 6+ years of inprisonment in which she refuses to cave into the pressure to relieve her own su...more
Read in January, 1998
recommends it for:
those interested in modern Chinese history and to understand the Cultural Revolution
Life and Death in Shanghai was recommended to me by my Chinese history teacher when I was in 11th grade. She said it would provide insight into the experiences of those who suffered the Cultural Revolution.
I read it then, and now, almost a decade later after having lived in China for 3 years, I am starting to understand what the book documents. Not only does it document one woman's terrific struggle with her government's authority, but it documents some of the reasons behind why sh...more
I read it then, and now, almost a decade later after having lived in China for 3 years, I am starting to understand what the book documents. Not only does it document one woman's terrific struggle with her government's authority, but it documents some of the reasons behind why sh...more
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