The Life and Legacy of Nien Cheng: Author of Life and Death in Shanghai

Early Life and Education

She earned a master's degree from the London School of Economics. In 1948, she and her husband returned to China, where her husband later worked for the British-owned Shell oil company until his death.

Following her husband’s passing, Cheng managed foreign corporate assets in Shanghai during a period of immense political and social upheaval. Her background in Western education and corporate management ultimately made her a target when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966.

Imprisonment During the Cultural Revolution

Red Guards accused Cheng of working as a British spy, leading to a brutal ransacking of her home and her subsequent arrest. According to her memoir, she was detained in the Shanghai No. 1 Detention House from 1966 to 1973, spending six years awaiting trial without ever being formally charged or permitted contact with the outside world.

During her imprisonment, authorities pressured her to confess to espionage. She consistently refused, maintaining her innocence despite harsh conditions and relentless interrogation. Upon her release in 1972, she learned that her only daughter, Meiping, had been beaten to death by Red Guards years earlier—a devastating personal loss that she later documented in detail.

Emigration and Publication of Life and Death in Shanghai

On September 20, 1980, Cheng left Shanghai for Ottawa, Canada, before settling permanently in Washington, D.C., three years later. Safe abroad, she channeled her experiences into writing her English-language autobiography, Life and Death in Shanghai.

Published in 1987, the book was translated into multiple languages. Historians and literary critics frequently cite the work as a primary account of individual survival against state-sanctioned violence during one of modern China’s most turbulent decades.