The Compelling Ideal

Thought Reform and the Prison in China, 1901-1956

Jan Kiely

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780300186376
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

In this groundbreaking volume, based on extensive research in Chinese archives and libraries, Jan Kiely explores the pre-Communist origins of the process of systematic thought reform or reformation (ganhua) that evolved into a key component of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary restructuring of Chinese society. Focusing on ganhua as it was employed in China’s prison system, Kiely’s thought-provoking work brings the history of this critical phenomenon to life through the stories of individuals who conceptualized, implemented, and experienced it, and he details how these techniques were subsequently adapted for broader social and political use.

Jan Kiely is associate professor of Chinese studies and associate director of the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He lives in Hong Kong.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Maps
• Prologue
• 1. Architects of Penal Reformation in the Late Qing Empire and Early Republic of China, 1900–1920
• 2. Two Guides to Reform: Prison Instructors in Jiangsu and Beijing
• 4. Reformation for Salvation: The Buddhist Movement in the Jails and Prisons of 1920s Zhejiang and Jiangsu
• 5. A Mechanism for All Offenses: The Nationalist Expansion of the Reformation Regime, 1927–1937
• 6. The Indispensable Regime: Thought Reform in Wartime, 1937–1945
• 7. Revolutionary Thought Reform: The Communist Version, 1946–1956
• Conclusion
• Selected Glossary of Chinese Terms
• List of Abbreviations in the Notes
• Notes
• Index