“I supposed the Red Guards had enjoyed themselves. Is it not true that we all possess some destructive tendencies in our nature? The veneer of civilization is very thin. Underneath lurks the animal in each of us. If I were… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“My own outlook and my values had been formed long ago. I did not believe in dividing people into rigid classes, and I did… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“As I gazed at Mao’s face wearing what was intended as a benign expression but was in fact a smirk of self-satisfaction, I wondered… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
Ji-li's deeply moving story should be on the shelf of every person's library. Her courage in the face of adversity and her steadfast loyalty… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“Justice? What is justice? It's a mere word. It's an abstract word with no universal meaning. To different classes of people, justice means different… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“Pilfering was common in Communist China’s state-owned enterprises, as the Party secretaries were slack in guarding properties that belonged to the government and poorly… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“For so many years, the official propaganda machinery had denounced humanitarianism as sentimental trash and advocated human relations based entirely on class allegiance. But… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“One of the most ugly aspects of life in Communist China during the Mao Zedong era was the Party’s demand that people inform on… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“But it also had many large posters with messages of a more peaceful nature. These extolled the country’s economic achievement since the Cultural Revolution,… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“Large portraits of Mao on wooden boards several feet high stood at main street corners. Painted to make the old man look extremely youthful,… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“As I stood in the room looking at it for the last time, I felt again the cold metal of the handcuffs on my… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
“But after living in Communist China for the past seventeen years, I knew that such a society was only a dream because those who… — Nien Cheng Copy Share Image
