An extraordinary woman has just died, after a heroic life caught in the maelstrom of revolution and deceit. In 1966, Nien Cheng was already a widow of the general manager of Shell Oil and drew the wrath of fervent young Maoist students -- who trashed her home and beat her. She was subsequently arrested and tortured for six years, spending much of that time in solitary confinement.
During her captivity, her only daughter, Meiping, an actress in revolutionary propaganda, was beaten to death by Red Guards. Succumbing to pneumonia and blood haemorrhages, Nien Cheng lost her teeth; and the tightness of her handcuffs made her fear that she would also lose her hands. But she remained defiant, earnestly studying the writings of Mao Tse-tung and turning their logic against her captors. In plain and compelling detail, Nien Cheng's 1987 book describes her interrogations as contests of will, as she refused to make a false confession and responded with quotations from Mao's Little Red Book.
Her determination didn't end there, because she refused any action that failed to make her innocence clear.
After her years in prison, she was told on March 27 1973 that she was being released owing to an "improvement in her way of thinking and an attitude of repentance".
She refused to leave, demanding that officials declare her innocent and publish an apology in a newspaper. "The No 1 Detention House isn't an old people's home. You can't stay here all your life," her interrogator told her.
Nien Cheng spent the last years of her life in Washington DC. When she arrived in the United States in 1980, using money her husband had left in overseas bank accounts, she was told she would not be admitted unless she claimed political asylum, something she refused to do. She travelled to Canada and remained there until she was admitted as an immigrant in 1983.
It could have been the foundation of a bitter old age, but you can tell by her beauty and lovely expression that goodness prevailed. Perhaps it was the Christian faith to which she converted early in life. Rest in peace, dear sister.
I would never have guessed her sad history looking at her serene, beautiful face. RIP.
Posted by: gabriel | Thursday, 12 November 2009 at 10:56 AM