Wu To Discuss Experiences of Imprisonment

Wu To Discuss Experiences of Imprisonment
BY LISA NUTTING
Rice News Staff
Jan. 15, 1998

During 19 years of political imprisonment, Harry Wu became an expert scavenger,
scouring fields for edible weeds and capturing snakes and frogs to help relieve
his hunger. His fellow prisoners became samples of the depths of human despair–one
torment-ed soul was driven first to insanity, then suicide.

In his best-selling book, "Bitter Winds," Wu chronicles his 19-year
imprisonment in Chinese prison labor camps, where he was subjected to grueling
labor, starvation and torture. His account also provides rare, detailed portraits
of the prisoners who became his friends.

"An Evening with Harry Wu," the third President’s Lecture Series
talk, is set for 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, in the Grand Hall of Rice Memorial
Center. Wu will discuss "China: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," recounting
his personal experiences there and commenting on human rights issues.

Wu is founder and executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation and
a resident scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Currently
working a lecture circuit, Wu presented about 30 speaking engagements in 1997,
most on college campuses.

Born in Shanghai in 1937, the son of a wealthy banker, Wu was sent to an elite
Jesuit boys’ school before attending Beijing’s Geology Institute.

In the beginning pages of "Bitter Winds" Wu writes, "I spent
the years of early childhood almost totally insulated from the poverty, violence
and fear that gripped much of Shanghai. Rarely did I have occasion to leave
my neighborhood, and I never knew that just half a kilometer from my home, carts
routinely collected at dawn the bodies of those who had died from illness and
starvation during the night."

Raised as a member of China’s privileged intellectual elite, Wu was a senior
at the Geology Institute when he was arrested by Chinese authorities on April
27, 1960. His insulated life abruptly became a thing of the past as he was exiled
to prison camps for expressing his political beliefs. He was never formally
charged or tried during his 19-year imprisonment, during which time he was transformed
from a member of China’s upper class to a faceless prisoner denied the most
basic human rights.

"Bitter Winds" is a powerful account of Wu’s imprisonment and survival
in the "Bamboo Gulag." Left for dead in solitary confinement, Wu fought
back from the brink of insanity. Released from prison in 1979, Wu was eventually
allowed to leave his country and move to the United States.

He testified before the U.S. Congress in 1985 on the human rights abuses he
witnessed, and, in 1991, determined to expose the gulag, returned to China with
a "60 Minutes" news crew. He posed as a U.S. businessman buying prison
goods and documented through a hidden camera the images of life behind prison
walls&emdash;the slavery and human rights abuses.

In 1995 he was arrested in China, found guilty of "stealing state secrets,"
sentenced to 15 years in prison, and expelled.

Wu’s efforts have been recognized with the prestigious Martin Ennals Human
Rights Award and the AFL-CIO Award for outstanding public service and leadership
on issues affecting all working men and women.

His second book, "Troublemaker: One Man’s Crusade Against China’s Cruelty,"
was published in 1996.

Wu’s is the Martin Luther King Memorial Lecture of the President’s Lecture
Series. The President’s Lecture Series will conclude March 10 with the fourth
lecture, "The Science Behind Jurassic Park," by John R. Horner. Horner
is the discoverer of the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere. All
lectures begin at 8 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Rice Memorial Center.

Return to Rice News Front Page