Jean Pasqualini

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Jean Pasqualini
Born1926
Beijing, China
Died9 October 1997
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France
NationalityChinese, French
Other namesBao Ruowang
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Known forImprisonment in the Chinese Laogai

Jean Pasqualini (

Corsican French father.[3] His Chinese name is rendered as Bao Ruowang,[4]
with "Bao" representing the first syllable in Pasqualini and "Ruowang" being a phonetic rendering of Jean.

Biography

As a child, Jean Pasqualini attended school in

People's Republic of China. Following his release, he was expelled and moved to Paris.[4]

In 1973, along with co-author Rudolph Chelminski, Pasqualini published his autobiography Prisoner of Mao. The book recounted his experiences as a prisoner from 1957–1964, including 15 months of interrogation that led to a 700-page confession. Pasqualini recalled the experience of the

self-criticism sessions. Over the course of his imprisonment, Jean Pasqualini wrote that he lost the capacity for independent thought, his defiance and skepticism gradually giving way to acceptance of his own guilt.[4]

I would defy any man, Chinese or not, to hold out against them. Their aim is not so much to make you invent nonexistent crimes, but to make you accept your ordinary life, as you led it, as rotten and sinful and worthy of punishment.

— Jean Pasqualini, Prisoner of Mao

Pasqualini spent his later years in France working as a translator and researcher for

Life magazine. In 1992, he co-founded the Laogai Research Foundation with Harry Wu.[5] He died in a Paris hospital in 1997.[3]

Influence

Jean Pasqualini's account of life in the labor camp system was a major source for The Black Book of Communism.[6] His book has been translated into several languages, and was made into a French-language movie in 1977.[1] It has been described as the first autobiographical account of life in China's labor camp system.[3]

When Pasqualini's book was initially published, he was criticized and denounced by French supporters of the Communist Revolution who, according to Seth Faison, "refused to believe that the seemingly utopian nation of happy peasants and workers ... could have such a dark side."

Pierre Ryckmans described Prisoner of Mao as the "most fundamental document on the Maoist ‘Gulag’ and, as such, the most studiously ignored by the lobby that maintains that there is no human-rights problem in the People’s Republic." Criticism subsided years later as more information emerged to corroborate Pasqualini's account, and Chinese authorities admitted to the excesses of the period.[1]

See also

  • Human rights in the People's Republic of China
  • List of Re-education Through Labor camps in China

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d Faison, Seth (October 13, 1997). "Jean Pasqualini Dies at 71; Told of China's Penal Horrors". The New York Times.
  2. ^ G.P. Deshpande Book Reviews : East Asia: Bao Ruo-wang (Jean Pasqualini) and Rudolph Chelminski. Prisoner of Mao., International Studies, April 1977 vol. 16 no. 2 296-297.
  3. ^ a b c d New York Times, 'Obituary : Jean Pasqualini, Who Wrote Account of China's Gulag, Dies', 7 October 1997.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Chicago Tribune, 'Jean Pasqualini: Wrote About China Labor Camps', 13 October 1997
  5. ^ Benjamin Ivry, 'Pasqualini, Out of Print', Commentary Magazine, 29 August 2007.
  6. ^ Coutois, Stephane, S.C. (1999). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes Terror Repression. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College.
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