The very rare, true story of resilience, courage and escape from Mao's infamous Chinese labour camps.
Xu Hongci
It took Xu Hongci four attempts before he finally escaped the
labour camps. He then travelled the length of China into Mongolia -
only to be arrested and sentenced to two years in a Mongolian
prison for illegally entering the country. After serving his
sentence, Xu Hongci met and married a Mongolian nurse, started a
family and, after Mao's death, returned to China where he died in
2008.
Erling Hoh
Erling Hoh is a Swedish-Chinese journalist who came across a
Chinese copy of Xu Hongci's memoir in a Hong Kong library. After
tracking down Xu Hongci's Chinese publisher and, eventually, his
wife and children, he obtained the original manuscript that
contained much richer content than the original Chinese edition.
One of the greatest escape stories I’ve ever read…will live on as a
timeless testament to the resilience of the human spirit
*MAIL ON SUNDAY*
One of the most compelling and moving memoirs to emerge from
Communist China...gripping.
*LOS ANGELES TIMES*
Riveting…There are many memoirs by Chinese imprisoned during the
Cultural Revolution (1966-76), but I’ve never read one, by a loyal
Party member, like this…While books such as this cannot be openly
sold in China, Xu Hongci’s will of course be smuggled in and will
amaze readers, especially those under forty.
*JONATHAN MIRSKY, Literary Review*
While there are notable victims' accounts of Nazi and Soviet
atrocities, there has largely been silence from those who actually
suffered at first hand the worst of Red China's astounding
inhumanity to its own people. Xu's moving account [is] a
must-read
*DAILY MAIL*
Xu Hongci is China’s Louis Zamperini, an ordinary man who simply
refused to be broken. To understand the deepest source of China’s
rise, read Xu Hongci's astonishing epic, a tale of ingenuity,
bravery and, most importantly, unshakeable determination. Xu’s
chronicle, masterfully translated by Erling Hoh, is the story of
modern China itself: the struggle for freedom of body and mind.
*EVAN OSNOS, China correspondent at the New Yorker and author of
the acclaimed Age of Ambition*
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