‘An Evening with Harry Wu’ Next President’s Lecture

‘An Evening with Harry Wu’ Next President’s Lecture
"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.

In his best-selling book, "Bitter Winds," Harry 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.

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.

"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.