![]() ![]() First Kiely shows how penal reformation and thought reform in theory and practice came from an amalgamation of ideas and perspectives. In particular, by taking a time frame spanning several regimes three themes emerge. Indeed, one of the great advantages of the book is the extensive time frame it covers, from the Qing in the late nineteenth century through to the 1950s Maoist period. ![]() Relying on a extraordinary large range of primary sources, Kiely traces the origins of the rehabilitative incarceration associated with penal reformation projects, to its implementation and evolution as a process used widely by later Nationalist and Communist regimes. This makes Jan Kiely’s the Compelling Ideal a groundbreaking and valuable study. Alongside this lacuna, is the relative dearth of studies on prisons and penal reformation, considering the vast literature on various aspects of the late Qing and especially the Republican era. However, until now, a comprehensive study of the pre-Communist origins of thought reform as a concept, and its evolution in implementation, have been left curiously understudied. The era of Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is often associated with its practices of “thought reform”–the ways in which the masses were indoctrinated into CCP ideology, self-criticism sessions, and mass “struggles” against counterrevolutionaries. The Compelling Ideal: Thought Reform and the Prison in China, 1901-1956 Chang Liu: Remnants of a Banner from the Cultural Revolution, Anhui, 2006 ( CC) by Emily Whewell ![]()
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