Format:
1 online resource (262 pages)
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
9780520938557
Content:
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.
Content:
Cover -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Cultural Foundations of China's Prison Camp System -- Premodern China's Legacy of Nonpunitive Forced Labor -- Imperial China's Heritage of Forced Labor and Exile for Convicts -- Late Qing and Early Republican Era Legal Reforms -- Prison and Conscript Labor under the Guomindang -- Conclusion -- 2. The Development of the Chinese Communist Prison Camp -- The Jiangxi Soviet's Inaugural CCP Camp System, 1931-34 -- Proximate Influences: The CCP Guerrilla Bases and the USSR -- Establishment of the PRC Laogai Camps -- The Rise of PRC Camps for Reeducation through Labor -- The Rise and Steep Decline of "Forced Job Placement" for Released Inmates -- Conclusion -- 3. The PRC Prison Camp (I): From Arrest to Forced Labor -- Arrest -- Detention Centers and the Pressure to Confess -- Going before a Court or Tribunal -- Transit Prisons and Transport to Camp -- Socialization in the Prison Camp -- Prison Food and Clothing -- Barracks Life and Sanitation -- Vermin and Disease -- Sexuality -- Forced Labor -- 4. The PRC Prison Camp (II): From Struggle Sessions to Release or Death -- The Party-State's Implicit Strategies for Control over Prisoners -- "Study" and Struggle Sessions -- Prison Argot -- The Isolation Cell -- Bruising "Help" from Activist Prisoners -- Torture at the Hands of Prison Guards and Officials -- Resistance -- Inmate Death and Its Aftermath -- Release back into Society -- 5. Prison Writings -- From Taboo-Enforced Silence to Active Development -- Four Categories of Prison Writings -- Ex-inmates' Motivations for Writing -- The Prison Camp Stay as a Transitional Device -- Structural Features of Prison Wall Fiction -- The Romantic Laogai Camp -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Western-Language Nonfiction -- Western-Language Fiction.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780520244023
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9780520244023
Language:
English
Keywords:
Electronic books
URL:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kxp/detail.action?docID=470924
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