Memoir Detailed Torture During Cultural Revolution (paging Anita Dunne)

The Wahington Post ^ | November 5, 2009 | Patricia Sullivan

[khnyny]

Nien Cheng, 94, whose memoir "Life and Death in Shanghai" was widely praised as one of the most riveting accounts of the Cultural Revolution, died Nov. 2 of cardiovascular and renal disease at her home in Washington.

At a time when China's Communist leader Mao Zedong was trying to purge political rivals and reassert his authority, Mrs. Cheng, the wealthy widow of an oil company executive, was one of untold numbers of professionals who were evicted from their homes by the Red Guard. She was arrested in August 1966 and falsely accused of being a spy.

Mrs. Cheng endured 6 1/2 years of solitary confinement and torture in prison, refusing to confess or bow to the will of her interrogators. Upon her release, she discovered that her only child was dead, purportedly of suicide, but actually after being beaten to death by the Red Guard.

In simple, exquisite detail, Mrs. Cheng's 1987 book describes the maddeningly circular reasoning of those caught up in the revolution. Her interrogations were contests of will, with Mrs. Cheng refusing to confess or responding with quotes from Mao's "Little Red Book."

Her captors responded with beatings. So tightly handcuffed that she feared losing her hands and confined in a frigid cell too small for her to lie down, Mrs. Cheng lost her teeth, caught pneumonia and had hemorrhages. She defused the misery by laughing at her accusers.

"Far from depressing, it is almost exhilarating to witness her mind do battle," Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote in the New York Times review of her book. "Even in English, the keenness of her thought and expression is such that it constitutes some form of martial art, enabling her time and again to absorb the force of her interrogators' logic and turn it to her own advantage."

[khnyny]

Excellent obituary of a great lady. This piece gives a peek into the atrocities of the "Cultural Revolution" in China. Perhaps someone should send this to Anita Dunne's office.

[silverleaf]

I’m going to get her book

Anita Dunne and her ilk would have been among the first wave of intelligentsia rounded up by the Maoists

[khnyny]

Yes, I'm going to get her book as well. Mrs. Cheng was one of the few who was able to get out and actually relay her experiences to the West.

I've read “Man's Search For Meaning” by Viktor Frankl also, about his experiences in a WWII concentration camp. I highly recommend it. It was the type of narrative that touches your very soul.

[ottbmare]

How can anyone be so strong and brave? Even though I call myself a Christian, in 6 1/2 years of isolation and torture I would have gone mad, succumbed to despair, and died. My admiration is enormous.

[squarebarb]

Am ordering it today.

Have been reading a lot about the Soviet Union and Stalin.

They were experts at twisting the truth. Bamboozling the entire population. Because they had exclusive control over information. And, of course, force.

[squarebarb]

On another note, it is amazing that this is in the Post.

[khnyny]

Yes, Nien Cheng is to be greatly admired - another unsung hero. The part about losing her daughter was particularly heart-breaking. Mao and his henchmen beat Mrs.Cheng’s daughter, Meiping, to death and Mrs. Cheng never really got over her death.

[khnyny]

They were experts at twisting the truth. Bamboozling the entire population. Because they had exclusive control over information. And, of course, force.

Sounds familiar.

I'm surpirsed that this is in the Post as well, but remember, this is the obituary section, not the editorial page.

[PzLdr]

They would have been the LAST wave. After they had outlived their usefulness to the REAL revolutionaries.

[Conservative Vet]

What an amazing woman.

If some of you are interested in more information about the Cultural Revolution, I recommend 3 movies: “Farewell my Concubine”, “To Live”, and “Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl”. All are in Chinese with English subtitles, and all were banned in mainland china because of the unflattering portrayal of the Cultural Revolution. Mao tried to consolidate power because his “Great Leap Forward” a few years earlier led to the starvation deaths of tens of millions of people.

[Tax-chick]

Outstanding book; I read it soon after it came out in English. I hadn’t realized Mrs. Cheng was still alive. God bless her.

[freedomlover]

I’m surpirsed that this is in the Post as well, but remember, this is the obituary section, not the editorial page.

---

In ATL our Atlanta Urinal-Constipation will take any obit for $, but the featured ones ALWAYS bend leftist.

Usually, it begins with “Activist . ... “

[happygrl]

Mrs. Cheng had two sisters in Southern California when she immigrated; they have died. She leaves no immediate survivors, and friends said she never got over the death of her daughter. They said Mrs. Cheng blamed herself for not forcing the young woman to leave China as conditions worsened.

Heartbreaking.

But apparently not so to Anita Dunne.

[Ciexyz]

The US film ‘The Red Violin’ has one segment set in China of the Cultural Revolution. The Maoists round up and burn musical instruments as well as persecute the educated segment of their population.

[happygrl]

I remember that well; a memorable movie.