Song Tan

Changshou Lake: True Story of Former Rightists at Changshou Lake, Chongqing of China in 1957 Song Tan

Changshou Lake is an artificial lake which possesses 203 islands of varying sizes and lies away 100 kilometers in the east of Chongqing city. In 1957, Changshou Lake was designated as a place of laogai (reform through heavy labour; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laogai and more than six hundred intellectuals (the so-called "Rightists"; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Rightist_Movement) were sent under escort into the islands. They then started their prisoners' life as long as 22 years and more than one hundred of them were persecuted to death. The author of the book Changshou Lake? interviewed about one hundred survivors of Changshou Lake and truly recorded the jeremiad that is about to be flooded by time. 'Changshou Lake' is a vivid but heart-breaking oral history. From it, people can get to know those "Rightist" sufferings, understand the truth of the anti-rightist movement by the Communist Party of China in 1957 and learn the absurdity and cruelty of that era. Now nearly half of the survived Rightists in the book have passed away.