Nien Cheng or Zheng Nian (January 28, 1915 – November 2, 2009) is the pen name of Yao Nien-Yuan (). She was a Chinese author who recounted her harrowing experiences during the Cultural Revolution in her memoir Life and Death in Shanghai. Biography Cheng was born into a rich landowning family in Beijing. She studied at Yenching University and later went to London to obtain a master's degree at the London School of Economics. She returned to China after graduation. During her time in London, Cheng also met her husband Kang-chi Cheng and converted to Christianity. Upon their return to China, Kang-chi Cheng joined the Foreign Affairs ministry of the Nationalist government. The couple lived in Australia briefly, setting up an embassy there, and eventually moved to Shanghai. After the Communist Party of China came to power in 1949, Kang-chi Cheng served at Shell's office in Shanghai until his death from cancer in 1957. Nien Cheng then joined the company as an adviser. The couple had one daughter named Meiping, but she died under uncertain circumstances when her mother was in prison. In 1966, Cheng was targeted by Red Guards and accused of being a British spy, as she was both Western-educated and the widow of the former manager of a foreign firm in Shanghai. Cheng's book documents her account of her subsequent confinement, which lasted for more than six years. According to her book, Cheng managed to endure the tortures and abuses inflicted by the interrogators and never made any false confessions or perjuries. Cheng used Chinese Communist Party founder Chairman Mao Zedong's teachings successfully against her interrogators, frequently turning the tide of the struggle sessions against them. Although the living conditions at the detention house were inhumanly squalid, Cheng still tried to maintain her dignity and keep her appearance decent as much as possible. In 1973, when offered parole on the basis that her attitude had shown improvement, Cheng resisted leaving the detention house without first receiving official acknowledgment from her captors that she had been unjustly detained. Upon her release, Cheng was relocated from her spacious home to two bedrooms on the second floor of a two-story building. Cheng continued her life under constant surveillance, including spying by the family on the first floor. When released from jail, Cheng was told that her daughter Meiping Cheng () had committed suicide. After Cheng conducted a discreet investigation, she