Hard Time: 30 Months in a Chinese Labor Camp

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.