Nien Cheng

“My own outlook and my values had been formed long ago. I did not believe in dividing people into rigid classes, and…

— Nien Cheng

“As I gazed at Mao’s face wearing what was intended as a benign expression but was in fact a smirk of self-satisfaction,…

— Nien Cheng

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…

— Nien Cheng

“Justice? What is justice? It's a mere word. It's an abstract word with no universal meaning. To different classes of people, justice…

— Nien Cheng

“Pilfering was common in Communist China’s state-owned enterprises, as the Party secretaries were slack in guarding properties that belonged to the government…

— Nien Cheng

“For so many years, the official propaganda machinery had denounced humanitarianism as sentimental trash and advocated human relations based entirely on class…

— Nien Cheng

“One of the most ugly aspects of life in Communist China during the Mao Zedong era was the Party’s demand that people…

— Nien Cheng

“Bad experience is more bearable when you are not the only sufferer.”

— Nien Cheng

“But it also had many large posters with messages of a more peaceful nature. These extolled the country’s economic achievement since the…

— Nien Cheng

“Large portraits of Mao on wooden boards several feet high stood at main street corners. Painted to make the old man look…

— Nien Cheng

“As I stood in the room looking at it for the last time, I felt again the cold metal of the handcuffs…

— Nien Cheng

“But after living in Communist China for the past seventeen years, I knew that such a society was only a dream because…

— Nien Cheng

I think the democratic movement will be repressed for now, only to erupt again somewhere down the line.And more blood will be…

— Nien Cheng

“I supposed the Red Guards had enjoyed themselves. Is it not true that we all possess some destructive tendencies in our nature?…

— Nien Cheng

“While I listened to the words of homage to Mao, I remembered Mao’s awesome power, like a blanket over China threatening to…

— Nien Cheng

“From the point of view of the Chinese Communist Party, the greatest casualties of the Cultural Revolution were the Party’s prestige and…

— Nien Cheng

“It's always best to look ahead and not backwards. Possessions are not important. Think of those beautiful porcelain pieces I had. Before…

— Nien Cheng

“In fact, after living in Communist China for so many years, I realized that one of the advantages enjoyed by a democratic…

— Nien Cheng

“Since the very beginning of the Communist regime, I had carefully studied books on Marxism and pronouncements by Chinese Communist Party leaders.…

— Nien Cheng