1st Edition

Remolding and Resistance Among Writers of the Chinese Prison Camp Disciplined and published

Edited By Philip Williams, Yenna Wu Copyright 2006
    192 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    200 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Even in the twenty-first century, the contemporary Chinese prison camp remains a more obscure and poorly understood realm than the Forbidden City of old. Apolitical service organizations such as the International Red Cross have routinely been denied access to PRC prison camps and prison camp inmates who have smuggled out frank, unofficial accounts of their incarceration have only been published overseas, and often had their sentences extended as a result.

    Presenting extensive analysis of literary and biographical accounts, this illuminating book provides a window to the affective side and emotional tenor of day-to-day life in modern day labour camps. With contributions from well-known and respected scholars, the book covers the contentious issues of prison economics, prisoner 'remolding' and post-traumatic stress disorder. Drawing parallels with Soviet, Nazi and Japanese prison camp practice, this outstanding new book will be invaluable to those interested in how the human mind responds to extremity, as well as to scholars of Chinese history, politics, literature and sociology.

    Acknowledgments  1. The Repercussions of Thought Remolding and Forced Labor on Chinese Writers: Introduction  Philip F. Williams  2. Zhang Xianliang as Author and Hero: A Study of His Record of My Emotional Life  C. T. Hsia  3. Traumatic "Remolding" and Its Ethical Implications in Three of Zhang Xianliang’s Novels  Yenna Wu  4. Labor Camp Fiction as Conversion Literature: Zhang Xianliang and Ooka Shohei  Jeffrey C. Kinkley  5. Resisting the Regime of  Remolding  Richard Madsen  6.  Expressing the "Inexpressible": Pain and Suffering in Wumingshi’s Hongsha [Red Sharks] Yenna Wu 7. Profit and Loss in China's Contemporary Prison System  James D. Seymour with contribution by Richard Anderson Sinograph Glossary of Selected Names and Terms  Sinograph Glossary of Selected Titles  Notes on Contributors  Index

     

    Biography

    Philip Williams, Yenna Wu