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Chat with Chinese Author Xiao Jiansheng
Paul Denlinger interviews Xiao Jiansheng, author of Chinese History Revisited, which was banned from distribution in the mainland but was published by New Century Media in Hong Kong:
How did you come to your thesis about Chinese history? And how did you decide to write a book about it?
I grew up during the Cultural Revolution, so I missed university. In the eighties, I began to question the concept of class struggle, and the Marxist division of society into capitalists and the proletariat. So I decided to start reading as much as I could on the subject. Since I did not go to university, I was free to read whatever I wanted, and I focused on the push for constitutional government in the early 20th century, especially during the Republican period. I wanted to understand why these multiple efforts at reform failed. I did this study in my free time, and since I was poor, like many Chinese at the time, I would go to bookstores, and hand-copy what many of the books’ authors wrote in my own notes.
In most Chinese histories, China is portrayed as being torn apart and weak when it is divided into competing states, and only strong when it was unified under one emperor, such as Qin Shihuang, the first emperor to unify China. As much as I could, I went to primary sources so that I could understand the true original conditions at the time. Gradually, a new picture emerged: the period when China was divided into competing states such as the Spring and Autumn period, the Warring States period, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties period were all periods of unprecedented growth in the arts, history, culture and commerce for the Chinese. There were many competing religions and philosophies which vied for influence in the court and throughout the country. Some emperors were intellectuals, historians, artists and even monks. When it came to the rights of Chinese as individuals, they enjoyed more prosperity and rights during these periods. In contrast, when China was unified under one dynasty, as first happened under the emperor Qin Shihuang of the Qin dynasty, the power of the emperor and dynasty knew virtually no limits, and the rights of the people suffered. This was because unlike in the west, there was no true feudalism in China, where the power of the kings was checked by the landed gentry and the church. All power and property was directly held by the emperor, and his influence was exercised throughout China by the bureaucracy.
As I learned more, I decided to write a book about my views starting in the eighties. It would be fair to say that this book was twenty years in the making. My questions about the official views of history deepened, and I wanted to understand why China, and Chinese society, developed the way it did. I questioned the division of the world’s ideologies into capitalism and socialsm; since capital is money, why should there be an -ism to it?
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- January 30, 2010 9:22 PM
Chinese Democracy Leader Zhou Yongjun Jailed for Fraud
Activist Zhou Yongjun has been sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud charges in relation to a case that took place in Hong Kong. From The Times:
The arrest of Zhou Yongjun aroused widespread controversy in Hong Kong, whose police handed him to their counterparts in mainland China after he tried to enter the former British colony from the United States on a false Malaysian passport.
A court in the southwestern city of Shehong has convicted Mr Zhou, 42, of attempted fraud for a transaction attempted in Hong Kong.
One of his lawyers, Mo Shaoping, said his client had faced a minimum sentence of ten years given the large amounts of money involved but was given a lighter sentence because he never took possession of the money.
Mr Mo told The Times: “In our view he should not have been put on trial in China for this so-called fraud since it involved a bank in Hong Kong and the whole case was alleged to have taken place in Hong Kong.”
Mr Zhou has denied the charges and will appeal.
Read more about Zhou Yongjun via CDT.
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- January 21, 2010 2:21 PM
Activists Protest Against Costly Hong Kong-China Railway
From AFP:
Hundreds of Hong Kong activists surrounded government offices Friday to protest against an 8.6 billion-dollar railway that would connect the city with neighbouring Guangzhou in mainland China.
The protesters chanted “no railway” as lawmakers met transport officials to decide whether to approve funding for the project.
The rail would form part of China’s national high-speed rail network and allow people to travel from Hong Kong to Guangzhou via Shenzhen in 48 minutes, just under half the current duration of the journey.
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- January 9, 2010 4:51 AM
Chinese Police “Cross Hong Kong Border To Arrest Activists”
From dpa:
The Hong Kong government was Tuesday being pressed to investigate claims that plain-clothes Chinese police dragged activists and journalists across the border into China.
Four activists and two journalists from Hong Kong were detained for three hours in China Sunday after a protest rally at an immigration
control point on the Hong Kong side of the border.
The six, who protested the jailing in China on December 25 of prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo, claim they were dragged across the border by plain-clothes Chinese police.
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- December 29, 2009 4:48 AM
Mainland Chinese Mothers Deluge Maternity Wards Of Hong Kong Hospitals
From Washington Post:
Roger Huang is a happy, healthy baby boy, born in mid-September. But as far as the Chinese government is concerned, he doesn’t exist — not officially, anyway.
The baby was born in Hong Kong, after his mother, Huang Rui, a 31-year-old Beijing-based freelance journalist, moved here in June to join her husband, who is from Shanghai and works at a bank. The move was strategic; Huang plans to have a second child soon, and under China’s “one child” family planning policy, Roger’s Hong Kong birth doesn’t count. (In recent years, China has softened its stance on the policy, with federal officials now debating even more radical changes.)
“My plan is to have two babies in three years, while I’m still not very old,” Huang said. “Having the baby in Hong Kong is good — we can have another child.”
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- December 20, 2009 10:42 PM
China Begins Work on World’s Longest Cross-Sea Bridge
Work on a 50 kilometer (30 mile) bridge connecting Hong Kong with Guangdong Province has just been kicked off. From China Daily:
Construction of the 50-km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, expected to be the world’s longest sea bridge, kicked off in Zhuhai of Guangdong province yesterday.
Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, among several other top officials including Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Donald Tsang, the Governor of Guangdong province Huang Huahua, and Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Edmund Ho, was present at the ceremony to commence construction of the project, which is expected to be completed by 2016.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning body, said the commencement marked a step forward in China’s plan to boost its transport infrastructure.
Zhang said he believes the bridge will help boost development on the west side of the Pearl River.
“Through a more convenient and fast transport network, Hong Kong’s finance, tourism, trading, logistics and professional services can better reach the west of the pan-Pearl River Delta area,” Tsang said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
From BBC News:
The bridge will be a six-lane expressway that can handle earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0, strong typhoons and the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel, said Zhu Yongling, one of the officials leading the project.
Thirty-five kilometres of it will be over water.
Driving times between Zhuhai and Macau to Hong Kong will be cut from three hours to about 30 minutes.
The estimated cost will be $10.7bn (£6.5bn), to be shared between Hong Kong, Macau and mainland authorities.
Environmentalists have objected that the bridge will affect the marine ecosystem of the Pearl River Delta and further endanger the rare white dolphin.
Mr Zhu said the environment and marine life would be protected during construction.
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- December 16, 2009 11:57 PM
Chinese Writer Su Tong Wins Asia’s Top Literary Prize
Writer Su Tong won the Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong Kong for his book about a disgraced Communist official. Su is most famous for writing Wives and Concubines, which was later turned in Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern. From Reuters:
Su’s novel, “The Boat to Redemption” is about a womanizing Party official who castrates himself after being banished to a river barge with his young son just after the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. It won the Man Asian Literary prize, the regional equivalent of London’s Man Booker prize.
“I feel this prize is independently judged,” Su told Reuters.
“So it’s important to me because I’m a writer who is not famous for winning prizes. I’m more famous for not winning prizes,” added the writer whose dark, provocative works are popular but have sometimes put him at odds with the authorities.
The panel of three judges, including Indian writer Pankaj Mishra and Irish writer Colm Toibin, described Su’s novel as a picaresque, political fable as well as “a parable about the journeys we take in our lives, the distance between the boat of our desires and the dry land of our achievement.”
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- November 17, 2009 1:47 PM
Photos: Ray of Sunlight
Southern Weekend covers the bedspace apartments, or cage homes, in Hong Kong. Translated by CDT:
In the summer of 2009, the air was heavy. Only the creaking of the fan could be heard.
The sour stench of urine mixed with the smell of soaked sweat, filling the air of the 40 to 50 square meter rectangular room. 60-year-old Old Deng leaned against a wall, staring out into space. Just three floors below was a street in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok area. Most here are old residences, neon lights, and a sea of sign boards. They bring back memories of scenes in Hong Kong cop and robber movies, where the good is mixed with the bad.
Inside the residence, against the wall, are 7 double-decked iron beds. In front of each bed is a wire lattice. It’s almost like a metal cage. At the moment, two men were napping inside the “cages.”
Old Deng coughed a few times, and spit. After, he turned and pulled the iron lattice, and then locked it. He had placed a shower gel and detergent inside the “cage,” in the divider. His was the cleanest bed. Others were grimy, some with even small syringes inside.
Old Deng was rail thin and stooped. He slowly strolled out.
“Cage homes” have been a difficult social problem for Hong Kong’s government for years. They are legally known as bedspace apartments. Most renters are the old and enfeebled, Hong Kong’s unemployed, lone independents. They have been called “cage people.” Those concerned about their livelihoods have strongly criticized government policies, and a legislative council member even moved an “iron cage” onto the street, in the hopes of attracting more attention.
Around ten people lived in Old Deng’s place, packed like sardines. Once, after a fire, the government required that two-levels be constructed. Currently, most have already lived here for twenty to thirty years.
“Before, one bed would be 200 kuai in rent per month,” Old Deng said. Every two months, the price would go up, increasing by twenty percent. Now, each month’s rent costs 1200 Hong Kong dollars.
Most “cage people” depend on government payouts. Comprehensive Social Security Assistance totals 2200 Hong Kong dollars; unemployment payment is 1830 HKD. Aside from this, there is also charity aid. Every weekday, a charitable organization provides him with dinner. They have already gotten used to this sort of life.
Hong Kong’s government departments do not simply remove the bedspace apartments. They go through legislative channels to ensure that they meet standards for fire control, hygiene, and building safety. In 1994, Hong Kong published the “Bedspace Apartments Ordinance” in order to improve and reduce the number of “cage homes.” According to records at Hong Kong’s Home Affairs Bureau, there were 30 licensed bedspace apartments and 910 beds. Last year, that number has already decreased to 21 apartments and 775 beds.
“Cage homes aren’t part of the Hong Kong government’s relief program. We’re only hear to check sanitation, to see if fire control meets standards,” explained the information officer for the Home Affairs Bureau.
The rent for Old Deng’s place should normally be 6000-7000 HKD (sic) per month. The landlord hardly ever shows up, and has hired a representative to collect the rent. All of the “cage people” told us: “Don’t take pictures, or else the landlord will get upset.”
After Old Deng left, the residence felt incredibly lonely. 80-year-old Luo Sheng sat by the doorway, complaining about his “bleak [situation],” and how he was lucky to have an older brother in Macau who would send him money whenever he came up a little short.
“I’m old already. One or two of us are renting a place together, and if something happens, no one will know. [But] these are my brothers in the ‘cage’; we look after one another,” said the elderly man. But onlookers might say there isn’t much of a brotherhood to speak among the ‘cage people.’ Bickering and fighting often erupt, and sometimes a person would get slapped in the face over eating someone else’s bowl of food.
Not long ago, due to narcotic use and drug concealment, one of the ‘cage people’ was taken away by police. About a half month later, he came back to the cage home.
In the dark of the night, these ‘cage people’ look like statues as they sit idly. The only sound is the creaking of the fan, and the television’s news report announcement.
For CNN, Eunice Yoon reports on another bedspace apartment complex (also with video):
The 19 occupants share two toilets. A small rubber hose attached to a leaky faucet is what they use to wash themselves. Social workers who monitor the apartments said the electricity is donated, so a few of them have TVs. One person on the upper deck has an aquarium.
One social workers said that because of the recession these homes are being occupied more frequently by those made jobless — people in their 30s and 40s. The social worker said none of the younger people wanted to speak on camera for fear their chances of finding work would be hurt.
Chung, 67, is now waiting for welfare to kick in and is on a long list for public housing. The government says it is doing its best to meet its citizens’ needs, but Chung says he has lost all hope. Economic recovery or not, he feels forgotten.
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- November 10, 2009 10:14 PM
Tilting at the Customs Administration over Confiscated Books
Danwei introduces and translates an article from Southern Weekly about a professor suing the Guangzhou Customs Office over the seizure of books he was bringing back from Hong Kong:
Most of the books that Feng Chongyi had confiscated by the Tianhe Terminal Customs Office were written by mainland authors and did not violate national laws or regulations. But the heart of his complaint is more general: there is no publicly-available index of banned books, and no clear public standard of what constitutes illicit printed material. Feng argues that this violates Chinese law.
Feng’s lawsuit mirrors an earlier attempt by the Fujian-based author Chen Xiwo to retrieve twelve copies of the Taiwan edition of his novella collection Book of Offenses from Fuzhou customs officials. Southern Weekly summarizes his case, in which the appeals court found that his book “disseminated pornography” and deserved to be confiscated.
The article also digs up an interesting older case in which Zhu Yuantao, a Beijing-based lawyer who won a fleeting victory over the Beijing Airport Customs Office.
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- October 28, 2009 1:12 PM
Tiananmen Dissident Family Presses For His Release
From AP:
Family and lawyers of an exiled leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests pressed for his release Monday, nearly a year after he was sent to a mainland Chinese jail while trying to return to his homeland.
Zhou Yongjun, a permanent U.S. resident on track to become a naturalized citizen, was trying to enter Hong Kong in September last year when he was stopped by local officials and handed over to mainland Chinese authorities.
He is being held in a detention facility in his home province of Sichuan in western China, where one of his attorneys said he has been tortured and denied family visits.
See also a post from ESWN which compiles several reports in English and Chinese about Zhou Yongjun.
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- October 12, 2009 10:05 PM
One Holiday, Two Systems, and Lots of Book Sales in Hong Kong
The extended holiday in China is giving citizens a chance to visit Hong Kong and stock up on books they can’t buy back home, such as the newly published China History Revisited. The New York Times reports:
Twelve years after Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese rule, the territory retains many freedoms unknown in mainland China, an arrangement called “one country, two systems.” In particular, political writings censored in the mainland circulate widely here, and they are hot souvenirs among the nearly 17 million mainland tourists who visit here every year.
“The more mainland customers we had, the more we realized that they wanted things they couldn’t get back home,” said Lai Pok, a staff member at the People’s Recreation Community bookstore, which shares its abbreviation with the People’s Republic of China. “Now we specialize in Hong Kong-published books that are banned on the mainland. The business is better.”
[...] At the nearby Causeway Bay Bookstore, Lam Wing-Kee was unloading new titles on President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders.
“We probably get two new titles a week, mostly political, and mostly from Hong Kong publishers,” said Mr. Lam, who has been running his shop for almost 15 years.
When asked to point out a book that was banned in mainland China, Mr. Lam paused and plucked a slim volume out of a large selection.
“Here,” he said with a laugh. “It’s the only one in that pile that is actually allowed.”
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- September 29, 2009 1:52 PM
China Tries to Stop Publication of Chinese History Revisited in Hong Kong
A book covering thousands of years of Chinese history was censored inside China a couple of years ago but has since been undertaken by a publisher in Hong Kong. With a planned release just before National Day, authorities have pressured the author, Xiao Jiansheng, to cancel publication, the Guardian reports:
Bao Pu, of New Century Press in Hong Kong, said he understood that the ministry of state security learned of the Hong Kong edition and put pressure on Xiao through the editor of his newspaper.
[...] Though the Hunan journalist does not explore life under Communism at length, he explained the events that inspired it in a statement released by his publishers.
In 1958 his grandfather died after his property was seized in the creation of the communes.
“Our land, farming cows, farming tools, and even our pots, bowls and chopsticks were all confiscated,” he wrote. But there was not enough food at the public canteen and the despairing 78-year-old starved himself to death in protest.
“I learned that when a person’s private property is infringed upon, his right to pursue happiness is taken away, there could be dire consequences,” Xiao wrote.
Then, in the late cultural revolution, Xiao began work as a journalist. After learning about the Great Famine, and witnessing the continuing destitution, he wrote an article attacking Maoist political movements which he said had brought nothing but poverty. That spelled an end to his hopes of attending university.
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- September 25, 2009 10:00 AM
Hong Kong: Journalists Accused of Incitement
From the Global Voices:
Last Friday (Sep 4), three Hong Kong journalists were beaten up and detained by Xinjiang armed polices when they were covering the protest in Urumqi. Yesterday, the authorities in Xinjiang claimed that the three journalists were under the suspicion of inciting public disorder by making hand gestures. The director of the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Information Office, Hou Hanmin, claimed that two of the journalists had not been authorized to report in the city and described the brutal act of the polices as an “unfortunate incident”.
This is not an isolated incident. Back in August, two reporters from Now TV were accused of possessing drug in their hotel rooms when they were reporting the trial of citizen rights activist Tan Zouren in Sichuan. On Sep 6, again 5 Hong Kong reporters were detained in Urumqi. All these incidents are threats to journalists’ personal security and the freedom of speech and press in Hong Kong. The Xinjiang government’s statement, accusing journalists of inciting public disorder, has further outraged the public and many expressed their anger in blogs and online media.
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- September 9, 2009 2:42 PM
China Official Regrets ‘Beating’
The Straits Times reports on the beating of three Hong Kong reporters in Xinjiang during recent protests:
The three journalists were tackled and detained by paramilitary police while trying to escape tear gas fired to disperse crowds on September 4 when Han Chinese protested inadequate security in the city.
‘We are regretful over the incident,’ Hou Hanmin, Xinjiang spokeswoman told Xinhua news agency. Xinhua said Ms Hou was expressing regret over what it described as an ‘alleged beating.’
‘Of the three journalists, only one had a temporary press card that allowed him to conduct interviews in the city, but the other two didn’t. They violated our regulations,’ he said.
See more on this story from ESWN.
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- September 8, 2009 11:08 PM
Gome Case Highlights Cross-border Difficulties
The Financial Times gives an update on the case against tycoon Huang Guangyu, who is being investigated both in Hong Kong and on the mainland. The court in Hong Kong is having difficulty proceeding with the case as access to Huang, who is detained in China, is limited, the report says. Rumors are rife in Hong Kong that Huang is still able to conduct business through his company, Gome Electronics, while under detention; Gome recently issued a statement in which the company thanked, “government authorities, in particular the Beijing Public Security bureau, for their creative support and facilitation”:
The apparent failure to make contact with the former chairman of Gome Electrical Appliance, cited on Tuesday by Justice Susan Kwan in a Hong Kong High Court hearing into an asset-freeze order, highlights how investigations in the territory can run into a brick wall at the border.
Mr Huang, one of China’s richest men, was detained last year in Beijing for vaguely defined “economic crimes”. He and his wife, Du Juan, have also been charged by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission with “fraud or deception” in connection with a 2008 share buy-back.
Winston Poon, barrister for Mr Huang’s two holding companies, told the court: “The trial is a long way down the road because the defendants in the matter are being detained in the PRC” . Mr Huang, also known as Wong Kwong-yu, and Ms Du were not represented at yesterday’s hearing.
Hong Kong, although a Chinese special administrative region, does not have an extradition arrangement with the mainland.
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- September 8, 2009 1:20 PM