No Wall Too High: One Man’s Extraordinary Escape from Mao’s Infamous Labour Camps - Brossura

Hongci, Xu

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1846044979 ISBN 13: 9781846044977

Casa editrice: Rider, 2017

Riassunto

It was one of the greatest prison breaks of all time, during one of the worst totalitarian tragedies of the 20th Century.

Xu Hongci was an ordinary medical student when he was incarcerated under Mao’s regime and forced to spend years of his youth in some of China’s most brutal labour camps. Three times he tried to escape. And three times he failed. But, determined, he eventually broke free, travelling the length of China, across the Gobi desert, and into Mongolia.

This is the extraordinary memoir of his unrelenting struggle to retain dignity, integrity and freedom; but also the untold story of what life was like for ordinary people trapped in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

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Recensione:

"I am struck by the freshness of Xu Hongci’s whole story. We have plenty of reminiscences by intellectuals and party officials in China, but it is rare to find memoirs of ordinary people. And most tend to focus on the Cultural Revolution, whereas Xu Hongci starts his account with the Second World War, giving the reader a much better sense of how the entire Maoist era evolved over time. While most memoirs tell us how the victims are eventually crushed by an unforgiving system, one of the most striking aspects of Xu’s account is his determination to gain freedom. Xu escapes again and again, his moral integrity seemingly unbroken." (Prof Frank Dikotter, author of Mao’s Great Famine)

"An important book: the gripping and deeply moving account of a man's lifelong struggle to reach freedom, driven by an indomitable will to survive in Mao's China." (Xiaolu Gua, author of Once Upon a Time in the East)

"An extraordinary story by a Chinese ‘Monte Cristo’ who managed to escape from a Maoist labour camp after a fifteen-year imprisonment; a fascinating first-person account by a survivor in the Chinese gulag. This enthralling book celebrates the triumph of human dignity over the inhuman nature of a totalitarian state. If you want to understand the essence of Maoism, read this captivating narrative filled with hair-raising details about one man’s life in Mao’s China." (Alexander V. Pantsov, author of Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life and Mao: The Real Story)

"A fascinating story, simply and movingly told. This is the story of the blackest days of Mao’s rule, when the party chairman set out, unfortunately all too successfully, to turn the Chinese people viciously against themselves. The question of how ordinary people could be so cruel is one that is recurring with a vengeance in the world of today, and still defies explanation. Xu’s story must still be told so we are not allowed to forget." (Anne Thurston co-author of The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong)

"Xu Hongci is China’s Louis Zamperini, an ordinary man who simply refused to be broken. To understand the deepest source of China’s rise, read Xu Hongci's astonishing epic, a tale of ingenuity, bravery and, most importantly, unshakeable determination. Xu’s chronicle, masterfully translated by Erling Hoh, is the story of modern China itself: the struggle for freedom of body and mind." (Evan Osnos, China correspondent at the New Yorker and author of the acclaimed Age of Ambition)

Descrizione del libro:

The very rare, true story of resilience, courage and escape from Mao’s infamous Chinese labour camps.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Rider
• Data di pubblicazione: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1846044979
• ISBN 13: 9781846044977
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 336