Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?Ĭhoosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. Bibliography (general works, plus Cheng's book) index. A story worth telling, but in need of more context.

Photos are mostly of public figures and events those of Cheng show a pretty, obviously privileged young woman and a strikingly wise- and intelligent-looking older one. Focusing on the details of the cruel injustice, Sommer barely sketches Cheng's earlier life or the troubled times, condemning the regime and its vicious acts but giving no real sense of the Cultural Revolution as part of the ongoing political picture. In 1978, she was ``officially rehabilitated'' and allowed to travel to the US, where she remains. Cheng has written a lengthy adult book (Life and Death in Shanghai, 1987) about these events the New York Times called it ``an absorbing story of resourcefulness and courage,'' while the Christian Science Monitor marveled at ``an indefatigable woman struggling to maintain her pride, dignity, sanity, and faith.'' Sommer's simple portrait is in the same vein, outlining the frightening arrest by angry young members of the Red Guard, the irrational questioning, Cheng's steadfast refusal to confess, her daughter's ``suicide'' (actually murder) when she too was imprisoned, Cheng's deteriorating health, torture, and eventual release.

In ``The Library of Famous Women,'' the experiences of a wealthy Chinese woman, imprisoned (1966-73) during the Cultural Revolution.

Nien cheng books