This book is a collection of political essays by Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. It is a sister volume to *Single-Edged Poisoned Sword - A Critique of Contemporary Nationalism in China*, which covers many aspects of Chinese politics, including: one-party dictatorship, powerful capitalism, rights defense, June Fourth, and nationalism.
"Life and Death In Shanghai" (also known as "Shen Jiang Meng Hui") is an autobiography by female writer Zheng Nian. First published in English in 1986, it was subsequently translated into various languages and published in various countries. In the book, Zheng Nian recounts her personal experiences from the beginning of the Cultural Revolution to her departure from China in the early 1980s. After her release from prison in 1973, she learned that, shortly after her imprisonment, her only daughter, Zheng Meiping, had been persecuted and had died. She then tried to find out the cause of her daughter's death. The book traces how the ideals of intellectuals were crushed by politics.
This volume is authored by Bu Weihua. Bu Weihua was the originator of the Red Guards and the Red Guard movement. He became a member of the Red Guards at Tsinghua High School. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he received professional training in history and was one of the first scholars in China to engage in the study of the Cultural Revolution. He not only understands the pre-Cultural Revolution period, especially the Red Guard movement in Beijing, but also has deep reflections on the catastrophe he experienced. This volume concisely depicts the panoramic images and processes of the Cultural Revolution from May 1966 to April 1969.
