Although Cheng's story is a unique case, through this book she told the series of events that took place in China and their influences. Cheng told of the influence of an event by telling her individual thoughts. For example, on page 479 Cheng wrote, "For so many years I had waited for Mao to die. When I was in prison, I was desperate enough to pray for it to happen. Now that he had really died, I did not know how to proceed." Although Mao had been a tyrannical leader, he had drastically changed life in China. The idea that many people were unsure of how to live without Mao in charge is clearly portrayed through Cheng's writing of her personal experience. Her writing is incredibly drawing and engaging. The many different characters created several perspectives of Communist China. Throughout the book, Cheng's use of details allowed me to understand the sentiments of each character, and she built up each occurrence so that I could not put the book down until I found out how the incident ended. Reading about Cheng's quick-thinking, wit, and logic amazed me again and again through the final chapter. All of this kept me enthralled throughout the entire story.
Wild Swans was good but not even in the same league as Life and Death
RIVETING its electric.....
For one looking for a tale about the strength of the mind, it's here. For one looking for a background on China during this very controversial time, it's here. This book shows how strong the human spirit can be when faced with a terrible situation. The fact that Nien survived this, without giving up her values, is amazing. It's hard to believe her amazing memory and as I read further into the novel, it seemed almost as if she had embellished her story, despite her disclaimer. There is also so much information about China. At times this book sounded like a textbook. If it were not for the fact that I had already learned most of the historical background of the memoir in history class, I would have enjoyed these sections of the book more. Yet, despite these minor problems, I still learned about the harsh realities of prison life and some of the extremes taken by Mao to control China. These parts of the book were great and enlightening.
The biggest problem that I had with the book was that it was drawn out towards the end. Once Nien was released from jail, the pace of the book slows greatly. She just started talking about everything that happened from her release from jail until she left for America. The whole third section of the book could have been shortened by a couple of chapters. I hate to say this, but if I were reading this book for leisure, I would have skipped much of the last section.
If you can deal with the end of the book, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about China's past, or just wants to read a good novel. It is simple to follow, and Nien provides information to fill in the gaps of China's situation and its relation to her situation, making this novel enjoyable overall.
Cheng, displaying incredible bravery and intelligence, is able to see beyond the hazy lies of the government officials and see its hypocrisy clearly. She has answers for everything - she returns the blows, one by one. For example, when her guards reprimands her for cleaning her cell, she replies, "I cleaned it according to Chairman Mao's teaching on hygiene" and proceeds to repeat quotation from the Little Red Book. When accused of being "unpatriotic" to her country by dancing with a foreigner, she retorts that she was "useful," because she made the man she danced with unpatriotic to his country by dancing with her.
In her book, Cheng also portrays how familial relationships were affected by the manipulations of the Chinese government. It was really sad when she learns that her brother falsely confessed and stated that she is a spy and that she forced him to take her to the Sun Yatsen Memorial in Nanjing and took a picture in front of the Kuomintang flag. She wonders about the torture they must have put him through to say that - "What had the Maoists done to my poor brother to make him lie like that? I could imagine the agony he must have gone through before he succumbed to their pressure." This reminded me of one of the themes from Machiavelli's The Prince; that it is "better to be feared than loved." The communist government must have known that fear keeps people from doing things to harm the people they fear, whereas it is easier to betray someone you love because there are no significant short-term consequences.
Throughout the book, I marveled at Cheng's acuity in seeing through fake people - when a man posing as a friend of her daughter comes to see her, she is able to tell that he really did not know her daughter and tells him forcefully that the should never visit her again because he works for a secret lab at a factory and that that will make her look bad I the eyes of the communist officials. I was also amazed at her incredible heroism - any other person would have buckled under the pressure of the Communist regime... Cheng never seems to complain or whine, even when things get really bad. Instead, she holds onto the belief that she did nothing wrong and she tries everything to get herself out of her terrible position.
Cheng's generosity is also to be commended. When the Red Guards comes to ransack her home, she is able to save some of the priceless art, her heritage and culture, from being destroyed by telling them that they are worth a lot of money and would be invaluable to the government. After her release, she declines to sell any of the pieces - instead, she freely gives them to the Chinese museum, even after her long imprisonment.
In all, I really enjoyed reading this book. Life and Death in Shanghai showed that the human spirit is resilient and that when people have the will to live and survive, they indeed can and accomplish a lot with their lives. I am glad that she was able to write this book because books like this are inspirations to people all around the world - that they may not despair and give up. I can only hope that we will all be able to show such courage under awful conditions and prevail even when our hope is running rather low.