Ballade For Nien Cheng

Album: Bang! (1990)
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Songfacts®:

  • The only instrumental song Corey Hart ever released, this piano ballad was inspired by the Chinese activist Nien Cheng, whose 1987 autobiography Life and Death in Shanghai details her life story, including her account of being imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution when she was accused of being a spy. In a Songfacts Corey Hart interview, he recalled, "I had the honor of meeting her at her home in Washington, DC and I played her the song, then we went for a great Chinese dinner."

    Cheng died in 2009 at age 94.

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