Life and Death in Shanghai

Blurb

Life and Death in Shanghai is an autobiography published in November 1987[Published 1986-07-24, ISBN 0-246-12948-4,ISBN 978-0-246-12948-2 ] by Nien Cheng from exile in the United States which details Cheng's six-year imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution.
The book tells the story of Cheng's arrest during the first days of the Cultural Revolution, her imprisonment, release, persecution, efforts to leave China, and early life in exile.
Cheng was arrested in late 1966 after the Red Guards looted her home. During her imprisonment, she was pressured to make a false confession that she was a spy for "the imperialists" because for many years after the death of her husband she had continued to work as a senior partner for Shell in Shanghai. Cheng refused to provide a false confession, and was tortured as a result.
She was eventually paroled under the pretense that her attitude had shown improvement. However, Cheng resisted leaving prison without receiving acknowledgment from her captors that she had been unjustly imprisoned.