F: Hu Feng's Prison Years

by Mei Zhi, Gregor Benton (Translator)

Hu Feng, the ‘counterrevolutionary’ leader of a banned literary school, spent twenty-five years in the Chinese Communist Party’s prison system. But back in the Party’s early days, he was one of its best known literary theoreticians and critics—at least until factional infighting, and his short fuse, made him persona non grata among the establishment.

His wife, Mei Zhi, shared his incarceration for many years. F is her account of that time, beginning ten years after her and Hu Feng’s initial arrest. She herself was eventually released, after which she navigated the party’s Byzantine prison bureaucracy searching for his whereabouts. Having finally found him, she voluntarily returned to gaol to care for him in his rage and suffering, watching his descent into madness as the excesses of the Cultural Revolution took their toll.

Both an intimate portrait of Mei Zhi’s life with Hu Feng and a stark account of the prison system and life under Mao, F is at once beautiful and harrowing.

With support from English PEN

This book has been selected to receive financial assistance from English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme supported by Bloomberg. English PEN exists to promote literature and its understanding, uphold writers’ freedoms around the world, campaign against the persecution and imprisonment of writers for stating their views, and promote the friendly co-operation of writers and free exchange of ideas. For more information visit www.englishpen.org.

Genres: China, History, Biography, Politics

326 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

2½. Well written but supremely frustrating. I can't help but think Mei Zhi censored herself quite a bit. Hu Feng's unending and blind faith in communism is, I must say, a bit disappointing considering the hell the Party put him through for decades. Additionally, some background information on his early life would have been helpful, but the editor offers nothing. Thanks, editor.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching and complex look at China's political and literary history through the eyes of those who lived at the sharp end of its oppression but always loved the state.

[Esther Bradley-detally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling, and one more finely written book shows the orrors of war and misplaced ideology, entwined with horrific brutality and people of tenacity and integrity.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

F: Hu Feng's Prison Years. Mei Zhi. Informative autobiography—Chinese political prisoner under Mao. Little emotion or analysis.

Reviewed @reallyReads