Dear Editor:
I have read the article on The Chinese Gulag, written by Harry Wu of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, in the January 1993 issue of Sinorama. I was deeply moved. Because Mr. Wu's address was not included, I would like to get in contact with Mr. Wu through your journal in order todiscuss what I have heard and seen about mainland Chinese prisons.
I graduated from a university in Chekiang Province, and served as an English translator for a travel agency in Hainan. I was arrested in 1989 for involvement in the democracy movement. I was released not long ago, and after an arduous journey across the mountains and jungles of northern Burma I have arrived in northern Thailand and am serving as an English teacher in a mountainous area here.
I would very much like to discuss with Mr. Wu my post-Tienanmen experience in Chinese prisons; thus I would like to impose upon your esteemed journal to put this letter into Mr. Wu's hands. Boundless thanks.
A reader in Thailand.
1993.4.10
Dear Editor:
A few days ago, as I occasionally read your esteemed periodical, I happened to come across the report by Teng Sue-feng about her visit with Harry Wu, entitled "Let the World Know." I learned that Mr. Wu is searching for survivors of the Chinese labor camp system to collect further information about the labor reform camps. It just happens that I was in mainland China for decades, and was imprisoned for more than ten years, kept confined for a very long time in the largest jail in East Asia the Tilanchiao Prison in Shanghai. I nearly died on several occasions in transit to the labor reform camp. Sharing his goal, I would be very happy to provide Mr. Wu with all I know, and to provide him all the assistance I can. To this end I would ask you to please contact Mr. Wu for me. At present I am stuck in Germany applying for political asylum; I sincerely look forward to your response.
A reader in Germany.
1993 .4.2
Editor's Response:
After we printed our review of Hongda Harry Wu's Laogai: The Chinese Gulag, we received many letters from readers who had been through similar experiences. We carry only two here, and have left off the names of the writers for the protection of related persons.