By Jiang Xue
In March 2024, the first volume of the China Unofficial Archives book series was published in New York: Xiang Chengjian’s autobiography, Return From Purgatory: A Memoir of Surviving China’s Great Famine and the ‘Sparks’ Case. This weighty 550-page volume features a black and white woodcut print cover by Hu Jie, against which the red title stands out, a poignant reminder of a bloody history and unhealed wounds.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Xiang for his comprehensive personal account of the significant historical event known as the Sparks case. After retiring from Liancheng Aluminum Factory Middle School in Lanzhou, Gansu, in 1996, the then 65-year-old, still with a full head of hair, returned to his hometown in the countryside of Wuning, Jiangxi, and began writing in a borrowed small house. Each stroke of his pen was a look back at a history forged in the “hell” of that era, a survival story that ultimately found its voice.
In the spring of 2016, I visited Mr. Xiang at his home in Wuning, Jiangxi, and saw the draft of his memoir for the first time. It was a tall stack of large, thin, and soft student composition sheets with small squares. The blue ink had faded slightly, but each stroke remained clear and forceful, as if the very strength of his life had been poured into his writing.
Twenty-one years have passed since the author finished writing in August 2003. This memoir has journeyed through various stages to become part of the China Unofficial Archives series, culminating in its official publication in New York. It also received Bouden House New York’s “Best Historical Memoir and Documentary Archive Award” in 2024, a fitting tribute that fulfilled Mr. Xiang’s long-held wish at the age of 85.
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On the afternoon of February 8, 2025, during the Lunar New Year, Bouden House held its annual book award ceremony in Flushing, New York. In his award citation, the scholar and commentator Hu Ping wrote, “The most valuable writings our generation can leave behind are memoirs and autobiographies. Mr. Xiang’s 500,000-character Return From Purgatory: A Memoir of Surviving China’s Great Famine and the ‘Spark’ Case serves as a prime example.”
Other excellent books also received awards at the ceremony. However, Mr. Xiang’s work stands out for being a profound exploration of history, a precious personal testament to a pivotal historical moment, and the life story of an individual who, with rare determination, resisted totalitarianism while cherishing freedom and truth.
On the Lantern Festival of the Lunar New Year, I called Mr. Xiang to share this good news. Unexpectedly, he was hospitalized. The ward was noisy, so his wife, Shi Fengzhi, helped him to the bathroom to take the call. He appeared somewhat frail, but a warm smile spread across his face upon hearing the news about the book’s award.
After Mr. Xiang finished his memoir in 2003, Shi had assisted him in typing it word by word into a computer. During those years, the speech environment in China was relatively open, and the couple had uploaded the autobiography online. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library also archived the memoir online. However, the current atmosphere for free speech in Hong Kong has drastically changed, and this content now faces the risk of being suppressed and censored. In 2023, the non-profit organization China Unofficial Archives, newly established, raised funds for the book’s official publication, making it available in print and online.
Mr. Xiang’s memoir begins with his adolescence and covers nearly every significant historical period in China during the Mao era. Mr. Xiang possesses an extraordinary memory and a compelling narrative style. As a memoir, the content is remarkably comprehensive and rich, although some minor inaccuracies exist due to the passage of time. Recognizing these shortcomings, Professor Ai Xiaoming thoroughly edited the book. During this process, she also engaged in numerous discussions with Mr. Xiang.
The book includes the six articles Mr. Xiang wrote for the underground magazine Sparks, transcribed and compiled by Tan Chanxue at the time, as well as my report, “Xiang Chengjian: The Great Famine Made Us Completely Awake.” Crucially, Ai also compiled a chronological biography of Mr. Xiang, clearly outlining his life journey and the timeline of the Sparks case from his birth on January 19, 1939, to the present day.
Ai Xiaoming was a fitting choice for this task. She has made a long documentary about the Jiabiangou labor camp, which figures prominently in Mr. Xiang’s memoir. She has also followed the work of independent director Hu Jie, including the documentaries Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul and Spark.
Xiang Chengjian and Shi Fengzhi in Lanzhou, September 2020. (Photo credit: Jiang Xue)
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The magazine Sparks emerged from China’s Northwest, specifically the city of Tianshui in Gansu Province, during the Great Famine. It was founded by Zhang Chunyuan and Gu Yan, right-wing college students from Lanzhou University who had been exiled to Tianshui. Lin Zhao’s poetry was also published in Sparks. Mr. Xiang, who was then working in the Tianshui Wushan area, was a crucial contributor to Sparks.
The book begins with an insightful introductory essay by Professor Ai: “The Sparks and Survival of a Dark Age: Reading Xiang Chengjian’s Memoir Return From Purgatory.” This introduction takes readers into a “historical tunnel leading to the dark age.”
Mr. Xiang’s memoir has three parts, providing detailed recollections for every significant political movement in Maoist China.
The memoir is divided into three parts. In the first part, “The Time of Bleeding Youth,” Mr. Xiang recalls how he was labeled a Rightist by Lanzhou University in 1957 and sent to work in Tianshui. He witnessed the Great Leap Forward, the People’s Commune, and the Mass Steel Smelting campaigns, experiencing the Great Famine, witnessing the deaths of innocent people, and ultimately participating in the founding of the underground magazine Sparks.
The Anti-Rightist Campaign marked the beginning of Mr. Xiang’s arduous life. As Ai notes in her introduction, “The Anti-Rightist Campaign was the first large-scale training in ideological conformity after 1949.” The aim of this training was to ensure absolute obedience to the leader’s will from all levels of party and government organizations, as well as all social strata in China. “Only by abandoning thought and relying solely on obedient loyalty could political campaigns continue from one to the next, thereby guaranteeing the unimpeded flow of the party’s will from top to bottom.”
Mr. Xiang was a student at Lanzhou University at the time. With just over two thousand teachers and students in the entire university, nearly two hundred people, a staggering 10 percent, were classified as “Rightists.” It can be said that the Anti-Rightist Campaign “established ideological and cultural autocracy by criminalizing speech, and institutions of higher learning ultimately degenerated into a world that defied reason, common sense, and logic.”
Yet, even against this backdrop of absurdity and cruelty, some individuals persisted in independent thought. Having heard and witnessed the suffering of peasants during the Great Famine, the “Rightist” students at Lanzhou University resolved to speak out. Some at the time chose to appeal to the highest authorities after observing the situation. However, Mr. Xiang and other contributors to Sparks rejected this approach. As stated in the book’s introduction, “They clearly recognized the root of the problem as the totalitarian nature of the political system, which led to feudalism and fascist, dictatorial politics.”
In the second part, “Journey Through Purgatory,” Mr. Xiang vividly recounts his imprisonment due to the Sparks case. Sentenced to 18 years for “counter-revolutionary crimes,” he details his experiences being transferred between detention centers, prisons, and labor camps, offering a partial yet significant depiction of China’s gulag. He spent a decade in labor camps in Qinghai, enduring the limits of human existence and surviving numerous near-death experiences.
In 1971, during the height of the Cultural Revolution, the atmosphere in the prison was extremely tense. Once, because a cigarette burn marked the front-page photograph of Mao Zedong in the prison newspaper, he faced accusations of “deliberately damaging the portrait of the leader” and the imminent threat of execution. Fortunately, he narrowly escaped this fate and survived.
The third part, “The Road of Returning Soul,” chronicles the arduous process by which Mr. Xiang and his fellow defendants fought for and ultimately achieved a complete exoneration after the Cultural Revolution. Only then was the author able to rebuild his personal life.
Accompanying Mr. Xiang’s recollections, the essence of totalitarian rule is gradually revealed. It can be said that such poignant and profound memories and records not only belong to the Chinese people who suffered but also serve as a vital reminder for freedom-loving people worldwide to reflect more deeply on and remain vigilant against the resurgence of totalitarianism.
Xiang Chengjian at Qinghai’s Delingha Gahai prison, September 2007. (Photo credit: Shi Fengzhi)
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Now, in the spring of 2025, the weather is warming and Mr. Xiang is slowly recovering. He still lives in his hometown of Wuning, Jiangxi, contending with his advancing years. .
To date, he still hasn’t received the hard copy of his memoirs. Although more than 60 years have passed since the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and China’s economy and society have seen significant development and progress, censorship in China persists and has become increasingly stringent in the past decade.
This perhaps underscores the value of the China Unofficial Archives and its series of books.
At the beginning of Return From Purgatory is a general preface that outlines the China Unofficial Archives’ aspiration to publish a series of books and its significance. The preface states:
“Since 1949, the communist ideology has consistently held absolute dominance in China and has profoundly influenced the writing of China’s contemporary history. The officialdom once wielded absolute power over historical narratives. However, history has continued to unfold. With the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 and the subsequent Reform and Opening Up, the control of official ideology experienced a period of relative relaxation, and the environment for Chinese people to write their own history improved. Over the past 40 years, a substantial body of historical writing has emerged from the Chinese populace, encompassing the surfacing of archives, personal accounts from historical witnesses, and the research findings of independent scholars. This diverse and remarkable phenomenon has become a noteworthy aspect of our time.”
Mr. Xiang is precisely such an unofficial historian. Simply for speaking the truth and refusing to remain silent in the face of the suffering caused by totalitarianism, he nearly paid with his life. As a survivor, he ultimately refused to be silenced, taking up his pen to record and speaking for those who could no longer do so.
After the 1990s, with the widespread adoption of electronic technology and a relatively liberal period for the development of civil society in China, a significant amount of historical writing emerged from the people. The authors included ordinary individuals who personally experienced historical events, as well as various groups such as media reporters, scholars, and history enthusiasts committed to preserving the truth of history. Mr. Xiang stands out as a prominent figure among them.
These invaluable writings often reflect authentic history from personal and ordinary citizens’ perspectives, transcending ideological constraints. While a small portion has been published, much more remains unpublished in China due to various reasons, particularly censorship, circulating instead in the form of manuscripts and self-printed books. Tragically, a considerable amount has also been lost and forgotten with the passing of the authors.
China Unofficial Archives is dedicated to collecting and organizing these crucial unofficial historical writings. The purpose of its book series is to provide a tangible form for the remarkable endeavors of China’s “underground historians” in recent years. Preserving these historical records in the form of printed books not only honors the authors but also ensures their availability to libraries and research institutions, laying a foundation for future scholarship.
Choosing Return From Purgatory as the inaugural volume of this series is a tribute to the Chinese people who bravely paved the way and paid the price, even with their lives, in the pursuit of freedom and democracy. It also signifies an active commencement of the next stage of rescuing history against the backdrop of increasingly severe censorship in China today.
Indeed, this is a journey that cannot cease. From Tan Chanxue, a survivor of the Sparks case, striving to write the book Sparks: A Chronicle of the Rightist Counter-Revolutionary Group at Lanzhou University in the 1990s, to Hu Jie’s investigative filming, to the continued attention of Professor Ai—all of this is like a warm flame along the path, one that will touch hearts and illuminate the dark roads of history.
In 2001, while writing “Ten Eulogies” (the content of which was later incorporated into Return From Purgatory), Mr. Xiang described his mood during writing in this way:
“Whenever the night grows still and people are asleep, whether I am working at my desk or lying in bed, my deceased close friends appear before me one by one, like images in a revolving lantern, pouring out their hearts to me. Some have disheveled hair, some are covered in blood and tears, some have incomplete limbs, their appearances are unbearable to look at, leaving me no peace for a moment. I have also experienced what Ba Jin described in his Random Thoughts, rolling off the bed in the middle of the night and breaking the lamp.
“I curse fate for not turning me into a blade of grass or a stone; I even prayed for a serious illness so that I would be in a vegetative state without memory or thought, thus freeing myself from this endless pain and sorrow.”
Now, the memoir has been completed and published, but his reflections have not ceased. In addition to Return From Purgatory, Mr. Xiang also completed the book Dissent and Reflection on Marxism in 2000, an exploration of the root causes that haunted his suffering life. This book cannot be formally published in China, so he self-published it in 2014. This spring, Mr. Xiang told me that he hopes more people will read this book. And thankfully, readers can now access this “self-printed book” on China Unofficial Archives’ website.