{"product_id":"9781590179277","title":"The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution","description":"The Chinese Cultural Revolution began in 1966 and led to a ten-year-long  reign of Maoist terror throughout China, in which millions died or were  sent to labor camps in the country or subjected to other forms of  extreme discipline and humiliation. Ji Xianlin was one of them. \u003ci\u003eThe Cowshed\u003c\/i\u003e is Ji’s harrowing account of his imprisonment in 1968 on the campus of  Peking University and his subsequent disillusionment with the cult of  Mao. As the campus spirals into a political frenzy, Ji, a professor of  Eastern languages, is persecuted by lecturers and students from his own  department. His home is raided, his most treasured possessions are  destroyed, and Ji himself must endure hours of humiliation at brutal  “struggle sessions.” He is forced to construct a cowshed (a makeshift  prison for intellectuals who were labeled class enemies) in which he is  then housed with other former colleagues. His eyewitness account of this  excruciating experience is full of sharp irony, empathy, and remarkable  insights into a central event in Chinese history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn  contemporary China, the Cultural Revolution remains a delicate topic,  little discussed, but if a Chinese citizen has read one book on the  subject, it is likely to be Ji’s memoir. When \u003ci\u003eThe Cowshed\u003c\/i\u003e was  published in China in 1998, it quickly became a bestseller. The Cultural  Revolution had nearly disappeared from the collective memory. Prominent  intellectuals rarely spoke openly about the revolution, and books on  the subject were almost nonexistent. By the time of Ji’s death in 2009,  little had changed, and despite its popularity, \u003ci\u003eThe Cowshed\u003c\/i\u003e remains one of the only testimonies of its kind. As Zha Jianying writes  in the introduction, “The book has sold well and stayed in print. But  authorities also quietly took steps to restrict public discussion of the  memoir, as its subject continues to be treated as sensitive. The  present English edition, skillfully translated by Chenxin Jiang, is  hence a welcome, valuable addition to the small body of work in this  genre. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of that  period.”","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182928347376,"sku":"9781590179277","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781590179277_p0.jpg?v=1763809765","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781590179277","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}