Nien Cheng Passes Away

One of my favorite persons passed away this week. Nien Cheng, the author of Life and Death in Shanghai, was 94 years old and had lived an extraordinary life. After her imprisonment by the Chinese Red Guards and the murder of her daughter she escaped from China to write her best seller and to lecture widely.

Four years ago, after reading her 1987 book, I wrote to her and she invited me over to her apartment near the Washington Cathedral. I was just finishing up language training in DC and was about to move to Shanghai. I was surprised by how lively and sharp she was. She was 90 but appeared to be 70. She was very well informed about life in Shanghai even though she had been gone for decades. When I asked her if she would ever return she said she had been invited by the Chinese government but she would never return to be used for propaganda purposes. Besides, she said, it would be too painful. She loved Washington.

After living in Shanghai a couple of years I wrote to her and shared with her my view that Shanghai was a relentlessly materialistic city. She replied that she had been told by her friends that it had become a city without a soul. I offered to send her photos of the places she described in her book but she asked me not to. She didn't want to look back.