ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What were Laogai?
How did Mao use Laogai in order to
consolidate his power?
VOCAB
• Laogai
• Reform through labor
• Harry Wu
LAOGAI: REFORM THROUGH LABOR
• Laogai were prison camps in which people that were labelled by
the Chinese criminal justice system, as counter-revolutionaries
were held.
• 50% Of world slavery
“Our economic theory hold the human being is the most
fundamental productive force. Except for those who must be
exterminated physically out of political consideration, human beings
must be utilized as productive forces, with submissiveness as the
prerequisite. The Laogai system's fundamental policy is 'Forced
Labor as a means, while Thought Reform is our basic aim.”
Wu, Harry, "The Other Gulag"], National Review, 4/5/1999, Vol. 51,
Issue 6
LIVING CONDITIONS: CLOTHING
• The quality of the clothing varied significantly depending on
the different regions of China.
• Uniforms which varied in color (usually dark one and
sometimes red)
• On this uniform there were stamped different Chinese
characters for fan (Criminal) and Lao Gai (Reform through
Labor)
• Plastic Shoes
LIVING CONDITIONS: FOOD
• Due to famine during The Great Leap Forward, food available
was scarce
• Prisoners would scavenge anything they came across: field mice,
crickets, locusts, toads, grapevine worms, grasshoppers, insect
larvae and eggs, and poisonous snakes.
• Stealing from fields
• Cannibalism
JIABIANGOU GANSU
• Around 2,500 out of 3,000 prisoners died of starvation
between 1960 and 1962, with some survivors resorting to
cannibalism .
LIVING CONDITIONS: WORKING CONDITIONS
• Prisoners often worked more than 12 hours per day, working at
farms, mines and different types of prison factories that
manufacture a wide array of products for foreign and domestic
markets.
LIVING CONDITIONS: “FREE TIME”
• After completing the workday, prisoners had a two-hour study
period where they must read and listen to communist
teachings.
• The camps were often overcrowded and it was common for
two prisoners to sleep in the same bed and for 200 prisoners
to share six showers within a half-hour period of clean-up
time.
SOURCE
“Prisoners are roused from bed at 5:30 am, and at 6:00 the zhiban from the
kitchen wheels in a cart with tubs of corn gruel and cornbread … at 7:00 the
company public security cadre (captain) comes in, gathers all the prisoners
together, and authorizes any sick prisoners to remain in the barracks. Once at the
worksite, the captain delegates production responsibilities … At lunchtime
the zhiban arrives pulling a handcart with a large tub of vegetable soup, two
hunks of cornbread for each prisoner, and a large tube of drinking water … after
about thirty minutes, work is resumed until the company chief announces quitting
time in the evening. Generally the prisoners return to the barracks at about
6:30 pm. Upon return it is once again a dinner of cornbread, corn gruel, and
vegetable soup. At 7:30, the two-hour study period begins… At 9:30, no matter
what the weather, all prisoners gather together outside the barracks for roll call
and a speech from the captain. At around 10:00 everyone goes to bed. During the
night no lights are allowed and no one is allowed to move about. One must
remain in one’s assigned sleeping place and wait until 5:30 the next morning
before getting up, when the whole cycle begins again.”
Wu, Harry. Laogai – The Chinese Gulag. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc.,
1992. Print.
LAOJIAO
• Re-Education through labor
• Minor crimes
• Similar Conditions
• Less Years Of Detention
• Laojiao and Laogai still present today
LAOGAI VS GULAGS
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEYLIEQSX2g
THE END
Now can you answer the essential
questions?