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Showing 13 items in the collection

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  • Theme

    • Oral and Personal Accounts (161)
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13 items

Book

Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, A Martyr in Mao's China

This book is the brainchild of Prof. Lian Xi of Duke University, U.S.A. In March 2018, it was published in English by Basic Books in the U.S.A. In 2021, it was published in Chinese by Taiwan Business Press. Based on a large amount of historical materials as well as first-hand interviews, this book reconstructs Lin Zhao's life. It depicts the political development before and after the birth of New China, and presents the resilient will and beliefs of intellectuals in this era. To purchase this book, please visit [the publisher](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lian-xi/blood-letters/9781541644229/?lens=basic-books), or a bookseller.
Book

Holy Virgin on the Altar - A Biography of Lin Zhao

This book is a biography of Lin Zhao written by mainland writer Zhao Rui and published by Taiwan's Xiuwei Information Publishing House in 2008. The book describes Lin Zhao's life and family background in detail. The "Appendix" contains the recollections of several people involved.Purchase link: https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010431680.
电影及视频

In Search of Lin Zhao's Soul

Hu Jie narrates the life of Lin Zhao, a Christian dissident who was condemned as a Rightist in the late 1950s and executed during the Cultural Revolution. Prior to becoming a mentcritic of the government, Lin Zhao was an ardent believer of communism. She demonstrated talent in writing and speaking as a star student in Peking University. However, after criticizing the government in 1957 during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, she was cast as anti-revolutionary. Despite the government’s attempts to silence her, Lin Zhao continued to speak and write publicly, including contributing two epic poems to Spark, an underground student-run journal. In 1960, she was arrested, and despite being released briefly in 1962, spent the rest of her life behind bars, under extremely poor living conditions. Nevertheless, she continued to write in prison, sometimes with her blood. In 1968, at the age of 36, she was executed by a firing squad. In this documentary, Hu Jie showcases many of Lin Zhao’s surviving writings and poetry. These pieces often contain criticisms of the communist regime, as well as commentary on policy issues pertaining to labor and land reform. In making this film, Hu Jie traveled around China to interview friends and associates of Lin Zhao, who knew her as a student, activist, or prisoner. This documentary includes excerpts from interviews with them, which inform us about Lin Zhao’s personality and motivations. This documentary has contributed to a widespread revival of interest in Lin Zhao, who had almost become a forgotten figure until the film’s appearance.
Book

Lin Zhao Anthology

The Lin Zhao Anthology contains nearly one hundred of Lin Zhao's works, including essays, poems, commentaries, and news reports written since her middle school years, as well as all of Lin Zhao's manuscripts and letters that were written in prison and later returned to her family. The collection was edited and compiled by Lin Zhao's friends Tan Chanxue (see separate entry) and Ni Jingxiong, and printed into a book on their own. Most of Lin Zhao’s manuscripts written in her blood in prison were typed on computer by Tan Chanxue. This anthology is the most important historical material used by Prof. Lian Xi of Duke University for his research and writing of the book "Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao's China."
Book

Lin Zhao: No Longer Forgotten

This book contains a number of articles in memory of Lin Zhao. It concerns the death of Lin Zhao as well as Lin Zhao's love, pursuits, and disillusionment. This book was published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House in 2000.
Film and Video

New Citizens’ Trial

In late January 2014, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, Xu Zhiyong, Zhao Changqing, Ding Jiaxi and other advocates of the New Citizens’ Movement were charged with "gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place." The case was heard for the first time in courts at different levels in Beijing. This film intersperses on-site records with interviews with defense lawyer Zhang Qingfang, scholar Guo Yuhua, entrepreneur Wang Ying, and others to present citizens' understanding of the New Citizens' Movement. This series of films are in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.
Film and Video

Remembering Lin Zhao

Independent director Tiger Temple began shooting this film in 2010 and completed it in 2012, with subsequent revisions. The film features interviews with Lin Zhao's former lover Gan Cui as well as interviews with several independent scholars such as Qian Liqun and Cui Weiping. It is a powerful addition to Lin Zhao's memory. This film was selected as one of the top 20 finalists in the 2012 Sunshine Chinese Documentary Awards.
Periodicals

Spark, Issue 1

<i>Spark</i> was an underground magazine that appeared in the Tianshui area of Gansu Province in northwestern China during the 1959-1961 Great Famine. The magazine was lost for decades but in the late 1990s began to be republished electronically, becoming the basis of documentary films, essays, and books. In 1959, the Great Famine was spreading across China. It was witnessed by a group of Lanzhou University students who had been branded as Rightists and sent down to labor in the rural area of Tianshui. They saw countless peasants dying of hunger, and witnessed cannibalism. Led by Zhang Chunyuan, a history student at Lanzhou University, they founded <i>Spark</i> in the hope of alerting people to the unfolding disaster and analyzing its root causes. The students pooled their money to buy a mimeograph machine, carved their own wax plates, and printed the first issue. The thirty-page publication featured Lin Zhao's long poem, "A Day in Prometheus's Passion." The first issue also featured articles, such as "The Current Situation and Duty," which dissected the tragic situation of society at that time and hoped that the revolution would be initiated by the Communist Party from within. The students planned to send the magazine to the leaders of the provinces and cities with a view to correcting their mistakes. But before the first issue of Spark was mailed and while the second issue was still being edited, on September 30, 1960, these students in Wushan and Tianshui were arrested, along with dozens of local peasants who knew and supported them. Among them: Zhang Chunyuan was sentenced to life imprisonment and later executed; Du Yinghua, deputy secretary of the Wushan County Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for having interacted with the students, and later executed. Lin Zhao was detained and also executed. Other key members, such as Gu Yan, Tan Chanxue, and Xiang Chengjian, were all sentenced to long years in labor camps. In the 1990s, Tan Chanxue devoted herself to researching historical information and figures to bring this history to life. She found in her personnel file (<i>dan'an</i>)photographs of the magazine, as well as self-confessions and other evidence used in the students' trial. Eventually, the photos were collated into PDFs, which began to circulate around China. Editors' note: This site the original handwritten version and a PDF of all the articles from the first issue of <i>Spark</i>. We will also make available transcripts of the essays in Chinese and are searching for volunteers to translate the texts into English. Please contact us if you're interested in helping!
Book

The Goddess of Freedom of the Chinese Nation -- An Anthology of Essays in Honor of Lin Zhao 40 Years After Her Death

Lin Zhao, formerly known as Peng Lingzhao, a native of Suzhou, was admitted to the journalism department of Peking University in 1954, but was classified as a Rightist in 1957. She was arrested and imprisoned in October 1960 because of her involvement with the underground magazine <i>Spark</i>. In 1965, Lin Zhao was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for "counter-revolutionary crimes." On April 29, 1968, she was sentenced to death and executed on the same day at the age of 36. This book is a collection of more than sixty articles written in memory of Lin Zhao.
Film and Video

Three Days in Wukan

Wukan is a village in Luwei City, under the jurisdiction of Shanwei City, Guangdong Province. From 2011 to 2016, Wukan villagers have continued to fight to protect their land and fight for villagers' rights. Facing strong pressure from the government, some even paid with their lives. In the process, the villagers had elected their own villagers' committee by one person, one vote to practice their democratic rights. Although the protests were eventually suppressed, the impact was far-reaching. Ai Xiaoming rushed to the scene at the beginning of the Wukan incident and left this precious record.
Article

Toolkit for the Removal of Xi Jinping

Before carrying out the protest, Peng Lifai had published a strategic guide for strikes and boycotts on ResearchGate. This 20-chapter document, spanning 21 pages excluding the cover and table of contents, summarized Peng's personal political ideas and served as an explanation of his actions. Read English summary <a href="https://chinachange.org/2022/10/19/bridge-man-peng-zaizhous-mission-impossible-and-his-toolkit-for-the-removal-of-xi-jinping/">here</a>. The first chapter, "Strategy for Protesting Against National Traitors," explains that the purpose of strikes and boycotts is to oppose Xi Jinping's unconstitutional re-election and to push China toward democracy, freedom, and prosperity. It also outlines the methods of protest, including decentralization in the early stages, organizing communities and universities into networks, and using information and non-violent means to spread the message rapidly. Proposed methods of protest include honking car horns, strikes, boycotts, hanging banners, distributing leaflets, burning tires, and setting up roadblocks. In the second chapter, "Opposing Xi," Peng Lifai wrote a humorous poem. The third chapter, "A Letter to Fellow Countrymen," enumerates the regressions in Chinese society under Xi Jinping's rule, drawing connections to China's history of power transitions, uprisings, and political changes. He criticizes the oppressive nature of the "zero-COVID" policy and calls for resistance from various groups, including soldiers, police, party members, the media, unemployed and bankrupt individuals, entrepreneurs, civil servants, university students, and intellectuals. Peng emphasizes the need for soldiers, police, armed police, and government officials to receive the protest message, hoping for leaders like General Cai E from the Republic of China era, who opposed Yuan Shikai’s imperial ambitions, to rise and help remove the dictator. He writes, "Fellow countrymen, we are the masters of the People's Republic of China. If we remain silent, we will all become slaves to the dictator. For the right to vote, for fairness and justice, for freedom and democracy, for ourselves and our future generations, let us embark on a new national defense movement." The fourth chapter, "Long Live the Ballot Song," calls for national elections for people's representatives and officials. It includes a cartoon designed by Peng, turning a nucleic acid testing booth into a polling station, with the caption: "We’ve been pretending to vote for three years. Just place a ballot box at the testing site." The fifth chapter, "Who Are We," lists China's marginalized groups, including migrant workers, lower-class citizens, flexible workers, unemployed graduates, education sector employees, low-income populations, small businesses, and left-behind children. It concludes with Peng’s statement: "We need to be our own masters. We don’t need to live in a cage." Chapters six and seven discuss Peng’s vision for a Chinese Communist Party Free Election Committee and a National People’s Election Committee, along with the constitutional and party statute bases for these political concepts. Chapter eight provides an explanation of the relationship between government, state, and citizens. Peng compares the relationship between citizens and the state/government to that of property owners and property management companies. He writes, "I do not owe gratitude to the property management company, because I am the owner who pays the property fee. I am its master, and it is my servant." Subsequent chapters describe Peng’s vision for a new government and its key policy demands, including ending mandatory nucleic acid testing, implementing "Charter 08" (a manifesto supported by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo), reducing taxes, and reforming state-owned enterprises. He concludes by quoting imprisoned lawyer Xu Zhiyong’s "Letter to Xi Jinping," once again expressing opposition to Xi’s re-appointment as leader. In the copyright statement, he encourages readers to share the guide widely.
Book

Walking Through That Era

The author of this book, Ms. Wang Lingyun, is the mother of Wang Dan, a student leader of the June Fourth Movement. She graduated from the History Department of Peking University and worked at the National Museum next to Tiananmen Square for decades. This memoir, published in Taiwan in 2021, is an account of the major events in modern Chinese history, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movemen. This is the link to purchase the book: https://www.eslite.com/product/1001273162681985770003
Film and Video

Xu Zhiyong

Chinese human rights activist Dr. Xu Zhiyong, twice imprisoned for his longstanding advocacy of civil society in China, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Chinese government in April 2023. The documentary by independent director Lao Hu Miao was filmed over a four-year period, beginning with the seizure of the Public League Legal Research Center, which Xu Zhiyong helped found in 2009, and ending with Xu's first prison sentence in 2014.
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