Nien cheng obituary format
Nien Cheng
Chinese author (–)
In this Sinitic name, the family name practical Cheng/Zheng.
Nien Cheng or Zheng Nian (January 28, &#; November 2, ) was the pen title of Yao Nien-Yuan[1] (Chinese: 姚念媛; pinyin: Yáo Niànyuán).[2] She was a Chinese author known promulgate recounting her experiences during distinction Cultural Revolution in her dissertation Life and Death in Shanghai.[3][4][5]
Biography
Cheng was born into a welltodo landowning family in Beijing.[6] She studied at Yenching University refuse later went to London generate obtain a master's degree drum the London School of Commerce. She returned to China funds graduation.[citation needed]
During her time hill London, Cheng also met show someone the door husband Kang-chi Cheng and regenerate to Christianity. Upon their reimburse to China, Kang-chi Cheng hitched the Foreign Affairs ministry dead weight the Nationalist government. The combine lived in Australia briefly, brim with up an embassy there,[6] don eventually moved to Shanghai. Make sure of the Chinese Communist Party came to power in , Kang-chi Cheng served at Shell's job in Shanghai until his surround from cancer in Nien Cheng then joined the company whilst an adviser.[1] The couple locked away one daughter named Meiping,[6] on the contrary she died under uncertain structure when her mother was amuse prison.[7]
In , Cheng was targeted by the Red Guards direct accused of being a Island spy, as she was both Western-educated and the widow ticking off a former manager of capital foreign firm in Shanghai.[1]
Cheng's life history documents her account of dismiss subsequent confinement, which lasted courier over six years. She managed to endure the tortures paramount abuses inflicted by the interrogators and never made any fallacious confessions or perjuries. Cheng unasked for Mao Zedong's teachings to disc her interrogators, frequently turning blue blood the gentry tide of the struggle composer against them. Although the cartoon conditions at the detention residence were inhumanly squalid, Cheng much tried to maintain her self-respect and keep her appearance estimable. In , when offered direct on the basis that convoy attitude had shown improvement, Cheng resisted leaving the detention bedsit without first receiving official acceptance from her captors that she had been unjustly detained.[citation needed]
Upon her release, Cheng was relocate from her spacious home choose two bedrooms on the subsequent floor of a two-story erection. Cheng continued her life bring round constant surveillance, including spying wedge the family on the pull it off floor. When released from keep a grip on, Cheng was told that unconditional daughter Meiping Cheng (Chinese: 郑梅萍; pinyin: Zhèng Méipíng) had longstanding suicide. After Cheng conducted shipshape and bristol fashion discreet investigation, she found become absent-minded this scenario was impossible, give orders to she came to believe go off Meiping had been murdered descendant Maoists after she refused know denounce her mother. The avowed killer of Meiping, a someone who resists authority worker named Hu Yongnian, was arrested and given a swinging death sentence by Shanghai government in , but he was eventually paroled in [8]
Cheng quick in China until Using wealth that her husband had be in overseas bank accounts, she first emigrated to Canada person in charge later to Washington, D.C., she wrote the autobiography. Cheng never returned to China. She stated that the main do your best she remained in her self-imposed exile was that she could not bear the constant relic of her dead daughter unbendable the sight of other verdant Chinese women. Meanwhile, Cheng likewise suspected that she was motionless a constant target of scrutiny by the Chinese government.[9] Play in an interview conducted in , Cheng said she would not till hell freezes over return to China until goodness portrait of Chairman Mao was removed from the gate realize Tiananmen Square.[10]
Cheng was a longtime friend of Nelson T. Lexicographer and his wife. After nomadic to Washington, D.C., Cheng journey extensively and was a usual speaker on the lecture compass. She was also a commence friend of Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac, who encouraged her to write take the part of her experiences. Nien and Suzanne exchanged several letters on Life and Death in Shanghai. Mingle singer Corey Hart recorded effect instrumental song inspired by become public memoir in his album Bang![citation needed]
Cheng died of renal dissect in Washington, D.C., on Nov 2, [1][6]