Ten years of madness : oral histories of China’s Cultural Revolution

Away from madness ; Trapped in the Great Northern Wilderness ; Stream of miserable consciousness / translated by Peidi Zheng -- Confessional ; I’ve become a different person ; It’s hard to explain / translated by Cathy Clayton -- The dear price of worship ; The story of a smile / translated by Richard Seldin and Yanchiao Li -- I refuse to admit I was a sacrificial object ; A man without a story ; Two women of No. 63 ; The Cultural Revolution lasted 2,000 years ; Hair cut by a ghost / translated by Baolin Ma -- Dead face ; Seeking pleasure out of misery / translated by Jane Y. Burk -- Appendix I. Cultural Revolution in the eyes of the new generation / translated by Cathy Clayton -- Epilogue / translated by Cathy Clayton -- Appendix II. An interview with the author Feng Jicai / translated by Dietrich Tschanz -- Appendix III. A chronology of events (1949-1979) -- Appendix IV. Key figures of the Cultural Revolution The Los Angeles Times calls Liu's previous works "warm-hearted and clear-eyed," while The Christian Science Monitor says, "Mr. Liu has a brand of frankness that during the Cultural Revolution was more likely to win him a stint of hard labor than it was to win him friends."

Set against the stark backdrop of China's turbulent Cultural Revolution, Hard Time is the author's account of his 30-month internment in Chadian Labor Reform Farm No. 583. He describes his degrading and dehumanizing experiences with a frank and often uncomfortable honesty. The tone of his narrative is deeply personal--there is no mistaking the authenticity of his experiences--and deeply rooted in loneliness and sudden waves of despair. Along the way, he meets many of China's other "Lost Sons," forming alliances and avoiding enemies.