The Compelling Ideal is a thoughtful, rigorously researched, and meticulously detailed investigation into early twentieth-century Chinese penal reform, from the last decade of the Qing dynasty to the formative years of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Throughout this study, Jan Kiely uses the concept of ganhua—which he defines as “a system of discipline through institutional incarceration and instruction aimed at transforming the mind and character” (p. 7)—to demonstrate how the ideal of modern, rehabilitative incarceration was used to buttress state power across multiple successive regimes. A central contention of this book is that the roots of Maoist thought reform can be traced back to late Qing- and early Republican-era efforts to morally rehabilitate the convict within the setting of the prison. Through rich detail and copious examples, Kiely convincingly demonstrates that Chinese thought reform is neither essentially Maoist nor typically Communist, but rather grew out of earlier carceral...

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