Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution [Hardcover]

Yang Xiguang (Author), Susan McFadden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 1997

Captive Spirits is the gripping prison memoir of Yang Xiguang, a high school student who was arrested during the Cultural Revolution for writing a political essay. He spent the next ten years in a succession of Chinese gulags and vividly relates the poignant stories of his cellmates--activists, intellectuals, "rightists," thieves, and madmen--as well as his own intellectual and spiritual journey.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lively, funny, sad, thought-provoking. It is not principally about politics, but people--those who crowded with Yang into dark cells in the 1970s. From murderers to capitalists to Christians, he gives us a glimpse of the 'little people' of China, their ways and their fates."--South China Morning Post

"Yang Xiguang depicts these "Captive Spirits" with all the stolid humor of a Solzhenitsyn and all the social searching of a Djilas. Yang's tales of fellow prisoners, who survive hunger, harassment, failed escapes, and state-organized murder, are enough to capture any reader's heart. These are free spirits."--Lynn T. White III, Princeton University

About the Author

Yang Xiguang is Reader in the Department of Economics at Monash University, Australia. Susan McFadden is a writer and translator based in Princeton.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 340 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1ST edition (November 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195868455
• ISBN-13: 978-0195868456
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,536,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new Dante, a new Divine Comedy, January 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution (Hardcover)

One of the most famous Chinese novelist BA Jing was also a "captive spirit" during the "Great Cultural Revolution". He kept reciting Divine Comedy in order to help himself endure the adversity. He always believes, there must be a new Dante some day to write a new Divine Comedy. Now I finally find this new Divine Comedy. Please have a read and get to know what is the Inferno in the communist China. You'll find the reason why the communism has to die.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A young man making the best out of the worst, September 17, 2001

By 

economicsbooks (Pepperoni, Pizza) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution (Hardcover)

If you're into movies like Good Will Hunting, you'll like this book. The author walks us through the lives of his fellow prisoners while he relats his time spent in the prison. It was Cultural Revolution, many of the prisoners he came across were highly intelligent and well educated. Yang therefore made the best out of the time he had to spend there by learning English, Algebra, and Calculus from his fellow inmates. It's a tragic tale that so many people were jailed because their political views sway a fraction away from that mandated by the government, yet they were exactly the ones who have the knowledge and know-hows to improve the country's economy and living standards. It's also a uplifting tale because you see Yang dug himself out of the troubles he encountered, made it out of the prison, and now became an established economist. He has not let his past kept him hostage like many dissidents Chinese who migrated to the West. A fine tale about humanity and the will to survive that's inside us all. The chinese version of this book is also published by OUP.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read, July 20, 2005

By 

travele "an economist" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution (Hardcover)

I simply can't put it down once I start reading it. It is a great account of the author's growth, from a naive ultra-leftist to someone with a sophisticated mind, who eventually embraced Milton Friedman. And it is a great history of post-liberation China in the eyes of different individuals from all social spectra. After reading it, I realize how naive my understanding of the "cultural revolution" was.

I also read its Chinese version, but I feel that the English version is much better written. Stongly recommended!