During my time there I was totally insulated from the outside. world, nobody to talk with and almost got nothing to read except, in the later days, Nan Fang Daily. There was not even a mirror or a clock. I totally lost the concept of time, not even the idea when I would get my meals.
The days were not as bad as the nights. My cell was lit by only a 30 watt bulb which meant, once the night fell, I could not read at all. In the first nine months I was questioned, usually for a couple of hours, almost daily, then I spent the rest of the time in my cell.
Personal hygiene was very difficult. We could have a tooth brush for every six months, a small tube of toothpaste every three months, and one piece of soap and a square metre of toilet paper per month. At first, we were only allowed a cup of water per day but this was later doubled.
After almost a year and following my numerous requests, I was allowed to use the money I had when I was arrested to buy some- thing to read (some books of Marx and Engles, The Red Chamber Dream and some Russian novels) and some dried beef and powdered milk. In later I was surprised when they told me that I could borrow some books from the centre's library but most of them were political dogma.
After 18 months, I was sent to Meizhou Prison. They used a Toyota saloon to deliver me alone rather than allowing me to travel with other prisoners. The day trip from the detention centre to Mei- zhou Prison was my greatest relax since I was imprisoned.
Mid 1983 - Mid 1988: the days in Meizhou Prison
It was almost Mid-Autumn Festival by the time I arrived Meizhou Prison. The head (ke zhang) of the prison's political department provided me with my first lecture (do not make friends with other people) and I was assigned a guardian - a labour-reform prisoner
to make sure I did not contact other prisoners.
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In theory, we were treated like ordinary workers in terms of working hours and labour security. In the evening we had lectures on political study, propaganda meeting, or briefing. Sunday was a day off and we were allowed to watch television, play chess and ball games, and occasionally watched movies.
All the prisoners in Meizhou Prison were divided into basic units or middle teams. Each middle team had more than one hundred pris- oners and operated like an individual production unit in a facto- ry. I was assigned to the fourth middle team which was responsi- ble for mechanical work.
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