Meiping Cheng

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Meiping Cheng, born in Australia, was the daughter of Nien Cheng. Her mother, being a victim of the Cultural Revolution in China, was denounced as an "imperalist spy", even though she was innocent. Meiping, a student of the film school in Shanghai, was kidnapped in the middle of the night, taken to the old Athletics Association building, at that time being used for political purposes, and pushed by overzealous Red Guards, who tried to get her to confess that her mother committed a crime. She refused to confess, and was murdered. This was covered up at the time by the government, who simply said that she had "committed suicide", which was impossible because there was scaffolding around the part of the building she supposedly fell off of at that time. Her murderer was caught in the 1970's, was put on trial, and was given a "suspended death sentence", which basically let him go free. At the time that the autobiography of Nien Cheng "Life and Death in Shanghai" was written, her murderer was still free and was not executed.

Meiping was a kind-hearted young woman, who enjoyed piano and was favored by the maid, Chen-ma. As a child, she would lend out clothing to her peasant friends, and invite them over to eat. She was determined and strong-willed, and was one of the best in her class. When faced with a problem, she would always say that she will be able to overcome it, and she did on most problems. She was to marry a young man by the name of Sun Kai. His family pushed for the marriage to happen sooner, but she decided to wait until her mother was released from prison, which was thought at the time to only be a year or so later. However, she sadly never was married.