The Great Wall of Confinement: The Chinese Prison Camp through Contemporary Fiction and Reportage

by Philip F. Williams, Yenna Wu

China is the only major world power to have entered the twenty-first century with a thriving prison camp network―a frightening, mostly hidden realm known since 1951 as the laogai system. This book, the most comprehensive study of China's prison camps to date, draws from a wide range of primary sources, including many compelling literary documents, to illuminate life inside China's prison camps. Focusing mainly on the second half of the twentieth century, Philip F. Williams and Yenna Wu outline the evolution of the laogai system, construct a vivid picture of prisoners' lives from arrest and interrogation to release, and provide a troubling new perspective on the human rights issues plaguing China.

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This study is an attempt to describe- through an examination of literature- the modern (Mao forward) labor/prison ("laogai") camp system in the PRC- about which little is officially known. The author's make a very small attempt at grounding the system in Chinese history, though more here would have been both useful and interesting. They also attempt a limited comparison with the Soviet gulag system and Nazi concentration camps. Again, more could and should have been done.

The most interesting and informative parts of the book focussed on the ideological "struggle" sessions designed to "re-mold" prisoners into correct thinking citizens, particularly during the Mao era. The sheer brutality becomes most poignantly sickening in the rare cases where this re-education apparently worked. Brings the conclusion of Orwell's 1984 very much to mind: "I sold you and you sold me."