Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness : political exile and re-education in Mao's China

After Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957-58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to "re-education" by the state. In Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness, Ning Wang draws on labor farm archives, interviews, and memoirs to provide a remarkable look at the suffering and complex psychological world of these banished Beijing intellectuals. Wang's use of newly uncovered Chinese-language sources challenges the concept of the intellectual as renegade martyr, showing how exiles often declared allegiance to the state for self-preservation. While Mao's campaign victimized the banished, many of those same people also turned against their comrades. Wang describes the ways in which the state sought to remold the intellectuals, and he illuminates the strategies the exiles used to deal with camp officials and improve their chances of survival.

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Anti-Rightist Campaign and Political Labelling 2. Beijing Rightists on the Army Farms of Beidahuang 3. Political Offenders in Xingkaihu Labour Camp 4. Life and Death in Beidahuang 5. Inner Turmoil and Internecine Strife among Political Exiles 6. End without End Conclusion Appendix A: Interview List Appendix B: Note on the Sources and Methodology Notes Bibliography Index