Woman from Shanghai: Tales of Survival from a Chinese Labor Camp [Hardcover]

Xianhui Yang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2009

In Woman from Shanghai, Xianhui Yang, one of China’s most celebrated and controversial writers, gives us a work of fact-based fiction that reveals firsthand—and for the first time in English—what life was like in one of Mao’s most notorious labor camps.

Between 1957 and 1960, nearly three thousand Chinese citizens were labeled “Rightists” by the Communist Part and banished to Jianiangou in China’s northwestern desert region of Gansu to undergo “reeducation” through hard labor. These exiles men and women were subjected to horrific conditions, and by 1961 the camp was closed because of the stench of death: of the rougly three thousand inmates, only about five hundred survived.

In 1997, Xianhui Yang traveled to Gansu and spent the next five years interviewing more than one hundred survivors of the camp. In Woman from Shanghai he presents thirteen of their stories, which have been crafted into fiction in order to evade Chinese censorship but which lose none of their fierce power. These are tales of ordinary people facing extraordinary tribulations, time and again securing their humanity against those who were intent on taking it away.

Xianhui Yang gives us a remarkable synthesis of journalism and fiction—a timely, important and uncommonly moving book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Imagine being hungry enough to eat rats, worms, or human flesh to stay alive. These were the modes of survival for 3,000 plus of China's intellectual and political elites, known as "Rightists", who became the victims of Chairman Mao's policies in years 1957-1960. Written in short-story form, Xianhui reveals the astounding stories of 13 survivors of a forced labor camp in the northwestern region of China. Prisoners were forced to grow crops and raise livestock in the harsh environment of the Gobi Desert. Camp conditions were horrendous and treatment from the guards was brutal. The situation became so ghastly that by 1960, the sand dunes surrounding the camp were littered with corpses and officials closed the camp. Only 600 people survived. The government then orchestrated a cover-up, rewriting the medical records of those who had died-failing to mention starvation. Moving and powerful, these stories are written as documentary literature, a form of reporting involving fictional elements created by Chinese journalists to disguise the truths and to escape repercussions from a still powerful government. The narratives also preserve the record of a regime's unspeakable inhumanity towards its own people, events which were unrecorded for decades.
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Review

“Xianhui Yang’s Woman From Shanghai, a newly translated collection of firsthand accounts that the publisher calls ‘fact-based fiction,’ is about what might be called the Gulag Archipelago of China. . . . Woman From Shanghai represents a remarkable contribution to a growing literature based on personal histories. . . . Readers of Mr. Yang’s book should not be put off by the frequent recurrence of common elements in these stories: the exposure to bitter cold; hunger so intense as to cause inmates to eat human flesh; the familiar sequence of symptoms, beginning with edema, that lead down the path to death; the toolbox of common survivor techniques, from toadyism to betrayal, from stealthy theft to making use of the vestiges of privilege, which survived even incarceration in this era of radical egalitarianism. It is through the accumulation and indeed repetition of such things that this utterly convincing portrait of a society driven far off the rails is drawn. . . . Most moving of all, perhaps, is ‘The Love Story of Li Xiangnian,’ about the persecution of a young man and the persistence of his ardor for his girlfriend. The haggard Li escapes from detention to be reunited with her, only to be arrested again. Their touching reunion many years later, after the woman is married, would not be out of place in a Gabriel García Márquez novel.” —Howard W. French, The New York Times

“In Woman from Shanghai, Xianhui Yang describes in wrenching detail the squalid conditions and widespread starvation that only 600 of the 3,000 prisoners were able to survive. Even some who lived to see their convictions reversed were forced to become paid employees of the labor camp. . . . Despite these horrors, there are stories of selflessness and fortitude.” —Sarah Halzack, The Washington Post

“Told in stark, spare yet deeply compelling prose, infused with unsentimental compassion, Woman From Shanghai stands out amid the voluminous literature and testimonies about the persecution in Mao’s labor camps. It exposes torture and dehumanization, but is also a powerful rumination on hope, love and humanity.” —Fan Wu, San Francisco Chronicle

“With these complex, yet simple stories, Yang uncovers another chapter of China’s hidden history.  More important, he shows how strong the human spirit can be and how hard it is to break.”  —Chicago Sun-Times


“With unadorned simplicity, Yang’s works reject superficiality and demonstrate restraint, very much like the deceptively calm expression of a person whose mind is tortured by chaos. This type of controlled restraint draws the readers to the special magic of his stories.” —Lei Da, Executive Deputy Chair of the Chinese Writers’ Association

“Yang’s stories are the Chinese Gulag Archipelago that emerged from the deep water. Yang and other Chinese writers use their pen as weapons to defend our memory and preserve our history.”—Yu Jie, prominent Chinese critic


From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (August 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307377687
• ISBN-13: 978-0307377685
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,024,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Woman from Shanghai", June 3, 2011

By 

M.B. (Ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Woman from Shanghai: Tales of Survival from a Chinese Labor Camp (Paperback)

"Woman from Shanghai" is a collection of biographical stories from several people in Chinese labor camps in the late '50s and early '60s. The author spent years tracking down former inmates, most wrongfully accused of having "ill" political thoughts, and interviewing them about their experiences in the desert prison.

Very little judgment is passed. The biographies speak for themselves about the terrible system of repression and torture in China. The narratives focus on the harsh conditions. There is very little about the major political figures of the time, but plenty on local politics and relationships. Some of the stories are very emotional because of the tragic toll the labor camps and prisons took on people's lives.

"Woman from Shanghai" is well-written. I'm sure much of the credit should go to the translator. The whole book reads well and is great for a lay person such as myself.

3 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the woman from shanghat, August 13, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Carlisle - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Woman from Shanghai (Kindle Edition)

Fascinating story wonderful prose and a window into pre and post revolutionary Shanghai and the resulting emigration. Life in Chinatown and the struggle to maintain their culture and traditions in Los Angeles. A great read.