This is a first-hand account of China's cultural revolution. Nien Cheng, an anglophile and fluent English-speaker who worked for Shell in Shanghai under Mao, was put under house arrest by Red Guards in 1966 and subsequently jailed. All attempts to make her confess to the charges of being a British spy failed; all efforts to indoctrinate her were met by a steadfast and fearless refusal to accept the terms offered by her interrogators. When she was released from prison she was told that her daughter had committed suicide. In fact Meiping had been beaten to death by Maoist revolutionaries.
Author Biography
During China's Cultural Revolution, Nien Cheng, a fluent English speaker who worked for Shell in Shanghai, was accused of being a British spy and locked up in solitary confinement for six and a half years. When she was finally released - to face years of further harassment and intimidation - she learned that her daughter had been beaten to death by over-zealous Red Guards. This extraordinary book is the story of her struggle to survive against the odds, defying her brutal interrogators and steadfastly maintaining her innocence.
