Made in China Journal: Volume 4, Issue 3, 2019
Edited by: Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas LouberePlease read Conditions of use before downloading the formats.
Description
Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realise that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.
— Alexandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago (1918-1956)
With these words, Soviet star dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exalted the transformative role of the gulag—where he had been imprisoned for eight years—in reconfiguring his soul. Just like his account of life in the labour camps played a fundamental role in shaping public perceptions of the Soviet labour camps, our views of the Chinese detention system are also widely shaped by the writings and testimonies of former political prisoners, whether victims of the mass campaigns of the Mao era or more recent crackdowns against dissident voices. Reading these accounts, detention easily assumes the tragic connotations of martyrdom, and detainees come to be surrounded by a halo of heroism. But what about those uncountable prisoners who are detained for common crimes or less-noble causes? What about the reality of murderers, thieves, drug addicts, and prostitutes? Is prison a blessing for them too?
This issue of the Made in China Journal aims to provide a more balanced account of Chinese experiences of detention by examining situations as diverse as reeducation camps in Xinjiang, forced detox camps for drug addicts, involuntary hospitalisation of people with mental health problems, the contested legacies of labour camps from the Maoist past, and the latest reforms in the fields of Chinese criminal justice. Such grim analyses are also key to understanding the upheavals that are currently taking place in Hong Kong. We should not forget that the popular mobilisations of these past months began in response to attempts by the Hong Kong authorities to pass an extradition bill that would have established a new case-by-case model to transfer fugitives to any jurisdiction that the former British colony lacks a formal agreement with, including mainland China. Reading the accounts included in this issue of the journal, it is not difficult to understand why this became a flashpoint.
Details
- ISSN (print):
- 2652-6352
- ISSN (online):
- 2206-9119
- Publication date:
- Sep 2019
- Imprint:
- ANU Press
- DOI:
- http://doi.org/10.22459/MIC.04.03.2019
- Journal:
- Made in China Journal
- Disciplines:
- Business & Economics; Social Sciences: Politics & International Studies, Social Policy & Administration
- Countries:
- East Asia: China
PDF Chapters
Made in China Journal: Volume 4, Issue 3, 2019 »
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Op-eds
- Governing Hong Kong like Any Other Chinese City (PDF, 0.3MB) – Kaxton Siu doi
- Hong Kong in Turmoil (PDF, 0.6MB) – Anita Chan doi
- Compelled Reticence: Overseas Mainland Chinese amid Mass Protests in Hong Kong (PDF, 0.1MB) – Daphne Zhao doi
- Can Chinese Students Abroad Speak? Asserting Political Agency amid Australian Nationalist Anxiety (PDF, 0.4MB) – Shan Windscript doi
- We Stood on Opposite Sides at a Pro-Hong Kong Rally—and Became Friends (PDF, 0.1MB) – JS Chen and K. Shen doi
- Service for Influence? The Chinese Communist Party’s Negotiated Access to Private Enterprises (PDF, 0.4MB) – Hong Zhang doi
China Columns
- China and the Political Myth of ‘Brainwashing’ (PDF, 0.5MB) – Ryan Mitchell doi
- Recruiting Loyal Stabilisers: On the Banality of Carceral Colonialism in Xinjiang (PDF, 0.6MB) – Yi Xiaocuo doi
Focus
- Harsh Justice? (PDF, 0.5MB) – Tobias Smith doi
- The Power to Detain in a Dual State Structure (PDF, 0.4MB) – Fu Hualing doi
- Systematising Human Rights Violations (PDF, 0.4MB) – Michael Caster doi
- Forced Internment in Mental Health Institutions in China (PDF, 0.4MB) – Zhiyuan Guo doi
- Preventative Policing as Community Detention in Northwest China (PDF, 0.4MB) – Darren Byler doi
- Punish and Cure (PDF, 0.5MB) – Giulia Zoccatelli doi
- On Detention, ‘Dirty Work’, and Extra-legal Policing in China (PDF, 0.4MB) – Børge Bakken doi
Forum
- On Becoming a ‘Blue-eyed, Blond American Friend’ (PDF, 0.5MB) – Sam Berlin doi
- Confronting Sexual Harassment in the Field (PDF, 0.5MB) – Yifan Cai doi
- State of Sensitivity: Navigating Fieldwork in an Increasingly Authoritarian China (PDF, 0.2MB) – Tyler Harlan doi
- Researching China Through Translation and Presentation (PDF, 0.4MB) – Wenjing Jiang doi
Window on Asia
- The Thai Elections of 2019: The Rise of the Illiberal Middle Classes (PDF, 0.2MB) – Claudio Sopranzetti doi
Work of Arts
- Jiabiangou Elegy: A Conversation with Ai Xiaoming (PDF, 0.8MB) – Zeng Jinyan and Ai Xiaoming doi
Conversations
- Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: a Conversation with Miriam Driessen (PDF, 0.2MB) – Nicholas Loubere and Miriam Driessen doi
- Contributor Bios (PDF, 0.3MB)
- Bibliography (PDF, 0.4MB)
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