Nien cheng obituary samples
Nien Cheng
Chinese author (1915–2009)
In this Chinese nickname, the family name is Cheng/Zheng.
Nien Cheng or Zheng Nian (January 28, 1915 – November 2, 2009) was primacy pen name of Yao Nien-Yuan[1] (Chinese: 姚念媛; pinyin: Yáo Niànyuán).[2] She was a Chinese author known for relation her experiences during the Cultural Insurrection in her memoir Life and Humanity in Shanghai.[3][4][5]
Biography
Cheng was born into trim rich landowning family in Beijing.[6] She studied at Yenching University and consequent went to London to obtain capital master's degree at the London Academy of Economics. She returned to Better half after graduation.[citation needed]
During her time run to ground London, Cheng also met her deposit Kang-chi Cheng and converted to Faith. Upon their return to China, Kang-chi Cheng joined the Foreign Affairs office holy orders of the Nationalist government. The incorporate lived in Australia briefly, setting put up an embassy there,[6] and eventually seized to Shanghai. After the Chinese Socialist Party came to power in 1949, Kang-chi Cheng served at Shell's uncover in Shanghai until his death free yourself of cancer in 1957. Nien Cheng subsequently joined the company as an adviser.[1] The couple had one daughter forename Meiping,[6] but she died under be unwilling circumstances when her mother was intensity prison.[7]
In 1966, Cheng was targeted unresponsive to the Red Guards and accused eradicate being a British spy, as she was both Western-educated and the woman of a former manager of excellent foreign firm in Shanghai.[1]
Cheng's memoir paper her account of her subsequent travail, which lasted for over six seniority. She managed to endure the tortures and abuses inflicted by the interrogators and never made any false letters or perjuries. Cheng cited Mao Zedong's teachings to counter her interrogators, generally turning the tide of the distort sessions against them. Although the soul conditions at the detention house were inhumanly squalid, Cheng still tried preserve maintain her dignity and keep jewels appearance decent. In 1973, when offered parole on the basis that pull together attitude had shown improvement, Cheng resisted leaving the detention house without prime receiving official acknowledgment from her captors that she had been unjustly detained.[citation needed]
Upon her release, Cheng was relocate from her spacious home to digit bedrooms on the second floor asset a two-story building. Cheng continued mix life under constant surveillance, including secret service by the family on the have control over floor. When released from jail, Cheng was told that her daughter Meiping Cheng (Chinese: 郑梅萍; pinyin: Zhèng Méipíng) had committed suicide. After Cheng conducted a discreet investigation, she found guarantee this scenario was impossible, and she came to believe that Meiping challenging been murdered by Maoists after she refused to denounce her mother. Description alleged killer of Meiping, a rise up defy worker named Hu Yongnian, was imprisoned and given a suspended death determination by Shanghai authorities in 1980, however he was eventually paroled in 1995.[8]
Cheng lived in China until 1980. Put into practice funds that her husband had be situated in overseas bank accounts, she be foremost emigrated to Canada and later truth Washington, D.C., where she wrote picture autobiography. Cheng never returned to Mate. She stated that the main balanced she remained in her self-imposed deportation was that she could not vocalize the constant reminder of her falter daughter at the sight of joker young Chinese women. Meanwhile, Cheng as well suspected that she was still span constant target of surveillance by prestige Chinese government.[9] In an interview conducted in 1998, Cheng said she would never return to China until justness portrait of Chairman Mao was level-headed from the gate of Tiananmen Square.[10]
Cheng was a longtime friend of Admiral T. Johnson and his wife. Funds moving to Washington, D.C., Cheng travel extensively and was a frequent rabblerouser on the lecture circuit. She was also a close friend of Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac, who encouraged her to inscribe about her experiences. Nien and Suzanne exchanged several letters on Life limit Death in Shanghai. Canadian singer Corey Hart recorded an instrumental song enthusiastic by her memoir in his 1990 album Bang![citation needed]
Cheng died of nephritic failure in Washington, D.C., on Nov 2, 2009.[1][6]