Nien Cheng RIP – 1915-2009
Posted: November 6th, 2009 | 1 Comment »Among the first overseas big sellers in the so-called Scar Literature movement of writing about experiences during the Cultural Revolution was Nien Cheng and her book Life and Death in Shanghai. I am sure many readers of this blog are familiar with her memoir of life in China in the pre-Communist era, and then her daughter’s murder and her own imprisonment and torture by Red Guards during the CR. It’s hard to believe that it came out in 1987 which means I read it over 20 years ago! It’s remained a strong selling book and widely read by people despite the flood of other scar memoirs that followed it and still appear.
Sadly Nien Cheng died in Washington this week, at a very respectable 94. there are, as you would expect, a number of appreciations and obituaries around worth reading and I’m sure more will follow:
James Fallows on his blog
Patricia Sullivan in the Washington Post
She truly was a great and dignified woman. Her book and vivid account of her suffering and courage showed more about the evils she was fighting against and the power of a single woman fighting for her dignity against an evil system.