Life and Death in Shanghai - Nien Cheng

Over the years I have read many autobiographies written by Chinese women about their lives prior to, during and since communism and the Cultural Revolution. For the most part they have been interesting, moving and informative with the odd exception. Having felt I had overdosed on the genre I left them alone for a while until I spotted this book languishing on my step-dad's bookshelf. He couldn't remember if it was any good or not, so I thought I'd find out for myself. Nien was relatively fortunate in her early years having studied and lived abroad. Her late husband had been a senior director for Shell in their Shanghai office and initially the communist ...