Life and Death in Shanghai

Life and Death in Shanghai

Reflective Study

Nien Cheng, a lady of wealth, culture, and social refinement, was unused to the treatment she would ultimately receive at the hands of Mao Zedung's Red Guards. Viewed as a natural enemy to a Communistic regime - based on a measure of wealth and education - the mostly teenaged "Red Guards" invaded homes and workplaces in search of people disloyal to Zedung and the political environment of the day.

Considered "too aggressive and too independent in mind and spirit for a Chinese woman," Ms. Cheng would be humiliated in "town meetings" where false and unfounded accusations were used to force a confession of subterfuge and espionage, tortured, imprisoned for over 6 years without news of her only daughter, Meiping, who had been murdered by Maoists revolutionaries for refusing to denounce her mother as a spy, and placed under house arrest.

The Red Guard destroyed everything she owned, decimated her health, fed her food with little nutritive value, and tortured her own brother into admitting that she had a picture taken in front of the Kuomintang flag. She refused to confess to being a British spy or subversive to the current Communistic regime.

The very characteristics, which likely made her a focal point for imprisonment, were the ones that probably saved her physical life from the brutalities she endured; too aggressive and independent for a Chinese woman. That resilient spirit was necessary even after her release from prison - coping alone with the murder of her daughter and enduring a hostile environment where everyone - including her maid - spied on her.

The strength and character found in this wonderful woman are inspiring to those who will never be required to endure the hardships of torture, family loss by violence, starvation, brutality, and the end of life as it has been previously experienced and enjoyed. The complacency of the routine, mundane aspects of the "average" life threatens American lives far more than the terrors Ms. Cheng would endure simply to survive.

Yet human endurance embraces far more than the physical aspects of torture or routine; courage in the face of danger, tenacity in the wake of temptation to simply quit, faith in those values and tenets held so closely to the heart.

Ms. Cheng refused to become bitter in the face of all she had suffered at the hands of a China she obviously understood and she continued to display an understanding of the underlying need to maintain her integrity in spite of what was done to her. When asked why she didn't simply tell her tormentors what they wanted to hear and be free of the pain, she responded, "you are Chinese, but you don't know China." Her tenacity and courage are clearly demonstrated in a statement she provided the media concerning her experiences: "As long as they did not kill me, I would not give up. So...my mood was not one of fear and defeat but one of resolution." valid application can be made to people's lives today; when faced with life's large struggles, or small piercing stones that weary us along the way, we can remember Nien Ching's courage, tenacity, faith, and fundamental compassion for her fellow man.