Expressing the “inexpressible”: Pain and suffering in Wumingshi’s Hongsha [Red Sharks]

Wumingshi and his 1989 prison narrative in the context of “prison wall literature” In both its content and format, Wumingshi’s (1917-2002) Hongsha [Red Sharks], published in Taiwan in 1989, stands out as a unique work in the realm of “prison wall literature.”1 It is perhaps the first detailed literary portrayal of the Mao-era Qinghai laogai prison camps, in which many prisoners were treated harshly and forced to do construction work, in addition to having to bear with extremely severe weather and environmental conditions.2 In terms of genre, Red Sharks does not readily lend itself to categorization either as biography or as fiction. Rather, it is a semi-fictionalized biography that is interspersed with reportage-a rare variation among the works belonging to “prison wall literature.” Specifically, Red Sharks is an interview-based account of former Nationalist Party (Guomindang) military officer Hong Xianheng’s (pseudonym, b. 1918) suffering in PRC prisons and laogai prison camps from 1951 to 1978.3 In it, we find both individual and collective memories of Mao-era trauma.