No Wall Too High: One Man’s Daring Escape from Mao’s Darkest Prison

Swedish journalist and translator Hoh set out to write a novel about an escape from a Chinese labor camp, but in doing research stumbled upon something better: a real-life account of an escape that he could translate for a wider audience. The escapee was Xu Hongci (1933–2008), a committed Chinese Communist Party member. Born to a middle-class family during Japan’s attempt “to liberate China from western imperialism,” Xu grew up under Japanese occupation and witnessed the 1947 collapse of the alliance between the Communists and Kuomintang that caused China to descend into civil war. Xu joined the Party in 1948 and by the mid-1950s had a salary, a girlfriend, and a respectable position in the party. But when the openness of 1957’s Hundred Flowers Campaign turned into the Anti-Rightist Campaign, Xu was branded a Rightist for his criticism and sentenced to six years of hard labor. Unable to bear the harsh labor camps, Xu made several unsuccessful escape attempts, and finally succeeded in 1972, becoming one of few escapees—perhaps the only one—of Mao’s harshest prison. Xu recorded his story for a Chinese audience; Hoh helpfully contextualizes events to help Western readers absorb this extraordinary account of modern Chinese history. (Jan.)