Engineering Communist China:

Sound Bite

Coming of age along with Communist China, a bright, educated young engineer represented its elite base of support. The author, a historian, follows him through those tumultuous years, from total commitment to political prison.

About the Book

Dan Ling, a patriotic young engineer eager to help build a new China, falls afoul of the authorities and spends 17 years as a political prisoner. Rehabilitated after Deng Xiaoping came to power, Dan returns to work with unflagging determination to help provide a good life for himself and his people after enduring prison, work camps and work farms, and the primitive life of the social outcast breaking new ground on the frozen northern frontier.Ling's personal story is interwoven with glimpses of rural and urban life from the 1950s to the 1970s as China fought to make the wrenching leap from a feudalistic to a modern society. Ancient practices alternate with breath-taking and misguided experimentation as the common man is called upon to stride boldly into the unknown but no doubt glorious future. Scenes of naivety, brutality, generosity and pettiness, personal bonds and vendettas, illustrate how peasants, workers and intellectuals survived in the evolving Communist system.This is an expose written without rancor, and a heartening story of faith in man's ability to progress.� 

Introduction

Since 1949, when the communists took over the country, Chinese society went through tremendous and fundamental changes. Many of these changes, such as the liberation of women, have become irreversible achievements that moved the nation forward. However, for the most part, the three decades from 1950 to 1980 marked a juvenile period of development characterized by enthusiastic inexperience, misguided overconfidence, political turmoil and oppression, with the Cultural Revolution standing as a stunning adolescent outburst.Ã? The Chinese communists convinced themselves of the absolute truth of their belief and noble purpose, very much like most millennial movements ' the Puritans in New England, who were building a City on a Hill, or the French Revolution and Russian Revolution that were creating new epochs in human history. They viewed any other ideas, institutions and social practices as incompatible with their ultimate goals. Individuals who differed from the new social and political norms were by definition enemies of the state and deserved to be either locked up or socially 'reformed.' Only after the passing of the Mao Zedong era did the communists under Deng Xiaoping mature and recognize flaws in the ideology-driven social and economic institutions. Now reforms, economic and, to a limited extent political, are transforming China into a society that would appall Karl Marx or Mao Zedong ' they would think it was time for another revolution.During those radical and tumultuous years, how did Chinese citizens fare individually? People from different walks of life view this period from different perspectives. Some, in the early 21stÃ? century, will view the period positively and with nostalgia; others take a more negative view. Those who were imprisoned for one reason or another will certainly look at this part of history as regrettable, at best. Viewed as threats to the newly created utopian society, political prisoners fell victim to those ideological zealots in power who found it imperative and convenient to lock up subversive elements. This practice sparked protests in the West during the Cold War, for ideological reasons, and continued to be condemned after the Cold War as violations of human rights. In addition, the reform of the ideological and social misfits through hard labor has been controversial and is often criticized as harsh and inhumane, and also as an institution of slave labor.It is a formidable challenge to objectively describe China's penal practice within the cultural and political contexts. It is especially difficult and complex for this period. For example, even the president of China and Mao's successor, Liu Shaoqi, was not exempt from imprisonment and physical abuse. Most descriptions of the penal system tend to be political rather than historical and fail to take into consideration that the general conditions for China as a whole were dismal, not just for prisoners. For example, the societal attitude toward the use of violence as a correctional means was widely shared. Spanking children was a parental right, in fact it was the right thing to do, quite different to today's America. Though there were rules on the books against institutionallysanctioned violence, people who administered the system only half-heartedly enforced them and they could not free themselves from the general social values of the day. Corruption was also prevalent. In spite of numerous executions of high officials for bribery and embezzlement, official corruption has been on the rise. The usual attacks on China's penal system tend to oversimplify the complex social and cultural factors underlying these abuses.The Chinese government tends to regard international criticism as an affront to China's national dignity. In a culture where saving face is so important, people simply do not expose their dirty laundry. As the popular saying goes, 'domestic quarrels and disgrace should be kept within the family.' However, such criticism cannot be rejected out of hand, merely because it seems insensitive; criticizing the critics does nothing to disguise the fact that there are serious problems in the society. Chinese officials know very well that all kinds of abuses in the prison system exist and they could actually use the help of international community to make progress in the area of human rights. Instead, driven by patriotic emotions, the government sometimes ended up defending the indefensible.Ironically, perhaps, the communists who created the current penal system, especially reform through labor, were the most idealistic people one could find in 20th-century China. As young cultural iconoclasts of the May 4thÃ? era, the communists vowed to rid China of both foreign imperialism and what they called feudal cultures and traditions. Torture and arbitrary applications of justice were part of the old system and unsuitable for a communist society. Yet, once they were convinced of their moral rectitude, the government'¦