MEMORIAL

SCHOLARSHIP

~,

The Meiping Cheng Memorial Scholarship has been
established at Slippery Rock University, Slippery
Rock, Pennsylvania, as an endowed scholarship.

...

•
j

r

Meiping Cheng, the daughter of Dr. Kang-chi and Nien
Cheng, was a promising actress - spirited, talented,
engaging. With the optimism and ingenuousness that often
accompanies youth, Meiping was totally consumed with
her craft at the Shanghai Film Studio when the Cultural
Revolution erupted in 1966. Soon the sinister actions of
the Red Guards touched the lives of mother and daughter.
Nien Cheng, widowed since 1957, was imprisoned and
falsely accused of spying for the West. Subjected to
inhumane treatment for nearly 7 years, she was released in
1973 after the authorities were unsuccessful in extracting
a false confession. Relentlessly Nien Cheng sought word of
her daughter. Eventually she learned of Meiping's tragic
fate - torture and death at the hands of the Maoist
revolutionaries when she refused to testify falsely against
her mother. Meiping Cheng held tenaciously to her
principles, opposing tyranny and brutality with righteousness and integrity.

As a memorial tribute to Meiping Cheng and with the
endorsement of Mrs. Nien Cheng, Slippery Rock University
is honored to establish the Meiping Cheng Memorial
Scholarship and its sustaining endowment. In this
meaningful way, Meiping Cheng's name will live forever in
the life of the university as a reminder that freedom and
justice and truth require the constant vigilance of
everyone. If this can be accomplished, her brief life of
integrity and promise, then, will not have been in vain.

1

Nien Cheng (right) with her daughter, Meiping, at their
home in Shanghai, 1964.