My life in prison : memoirs of a Chinese political dissident / Jiang Qisheng ; translated by James Erwin Dew and edited by Naomi May ; with a foreword by Andrew J. Nathan and an introduction by Perry Link.

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. 1. The detention center. A trip to the south ; Dark clouds appear ; A sleepless night ; In section seven ; Maintaining one's dignity ; Verbal tussles during preliminary examination ; Peaceful coexistence with fellow prisoners ; Avoiding self-pity ; Death and life by the wall ; Looking on the bright side ; The white hole of human rights ; A brief look at evidence of corruption ; Longing for books ; Chess and cards ; Litigation records ; The trial ; Falungong adherent Sun Wei ; Gao Shuo of the electric saw ; Treated as guilty even without evidence ; Precious messges ; Occasional loneliness ; Victims of injustice and crackdowns on criminals ; The clank of chains at dawn ; A sketch of the detention center ; The campaign for democracy ; Reading the newspapers ; The Taiwan question ; "Give birth early and often" ; Teachers' low self-esteem ; The joy of books ; Blood on the sleeping platform ; A small society in a narrow room ; Three encounters with Falungong ; When would my case be settled? ; From detention center to transfer center -- part 2. In the transfer center. Encountering prohibitions ; Unwritten rules ; A true April Fool's Day story ; A frightening interlude ; Visitors day ; Guinness record levels of suffering ; Others may be biased, but I am impartial ; When the cock crows at dawn, the sytem is even more cruel ; I've never been afraid of hard work ; The long May Day holiday ; The unchanging transfer center -- The day I was released from prison.

"In 1999, leading dissident Jiang Qisheng was given a four-year sentence for inviting the Chinese people to light candles to honor the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Drawn with indignant intensity from Jiang's time in prison, his memoirs record chilling observations of the modern "civilized" Beijing jails in which he was held. While awaiting a farcical trial, he shares a cell crowded with common criminals, among them a murderer who had dismembered his victim with an electric saw. Along with intriguing vignettes of his fellow prisoners, Jiang describes the brutal conditions they all faced: inmates led to execution with necks corded to silence them, savage fights between prisoners, and rare moments of unexpected kindness. He describes the frequent beatings by guards, the use of the electric prod, and a dehumanizing regime aimed at humiliation and the destruction of individual personality. After he is sentenced, conditions are even worse. Prisoners, used as slave labor, become bitterly exhausted and emaciated, while facing new depths of mental degradation. Throughout, however, Jiang retains his dignity, his detached and perceptive intelligence, and his concern for his fellow sufferers, guards included. Written in a light and ironic style, Jiang's stories of prisoners, many of whom come from the most primitive and impoverished layer of Chinese society, are related with vividness, insight, humor, and compassion. Dismayed by their fatalistic docility, the author asks, "Where lies China's hope? Can democracy ever take root in China?" The answers, surely, lie in the voices of those, like Jiang, who dare to speak out."--Publisher's website.