回眸夾邊溝：勞改農場如何成爲死亡集中營？
CDT編輯注：中國民間檔案館（China Unofficial Archives）是前駐華記者、普利策新聞獎得主張彥（Ian Johnson）創辦的公益組織，致力於收集、保存和傳播被審查、被壓制的中國民間歷史，2023年12月在美國成立。網站爲中英雙語，館藏資料免費向公衆開放。
免責聲明：為了便於閱讀，本站編輯在不違背原文含義的前提下對內容進行了適當修改。特此聲明，本文章僅代表作者個人觀點，本站僅作為資訊展示平臺，旨在幫助讀者更全面地瞭解歷史真相。
我們新開啟了更專業的知史明智PRO版本(免費)，感興趣的讀者可以移步https://pro.realhist.org/，如果對您有幫助請收藏並幫忙推薦，謝謝！
CDT編輯注：中國民間檔案館（China Unofficial Archives）是前駐華記者、普利策新聞獎得主張彥（Ian Johnson）創辦的公益組織，致力於收集、保存和傳播被審查、被壓制的中國民間歷史，2023年12月在美國成立。網站爲中英雙語，館藏資料免費向公衆開放。
1956年到1957年 ，在中共中央“百花齊放、百家爭鳴”的“雙百政策”以及隨之而來的“大鳴大放”號召之下，中國的各界知識分子積極向黨諫言，結果卻被捲入“反右運動”，數十萬人被劃爲“資產階級右派”，他們的言論也被視作是“對黨的惡毒進攻”。其中，約3000名“右派分子”被送到位於甘肅酒泉戈壁灘上的國營夾邊溝農場，進行勞動教養。
被送到夾邊溝農場的這些人，只是全國50多萬右派分子中的一小部分，他們中的大部分人都沒能活着離開夾邊溝。酷刑般的勞動，加上規模空前的大饑荒，讓夾邊溝農場留下累累屍骨。那些死裏逃生者，則終生揹負着如深淵般黑暗的記憶。
2000年代初，得益於中國當時比較寬鬆的言論環境，一些夾邊溝的倖存者開始發表回憶錄和接受採訪講述自己的經歷，希望以此警醒世人，讓悲劇不再重演。同時，夾邊溝的慘烈情況也吸引了一些記者、作家的注意。他們投入大量時間和資源，走訪倖存者及遇難者家屬，查閱資料，試圖還原和重現這段歷史。
《恍若隔世——回眸夾邊溝》一書即是這段時期的成果之一。作者邢同義歷時數年寫成此書，通過挖掘隱藏於時間夾縫中的碎片，爲讀者拼湊出一幅關於夾邊溝的相對完整和可靠的歷史圖景。邢同義曾任酒泉地委副書記和酒泉市人大常委會主任，這層身份使他得以接觸到一些關鍵史料和人物，也使得這本書在當事人口述的基礎上，還補充了重要的歷史背景和信息。例如，通過後來的夾邊溝林場場長，作者獲得了當年建立夾邊溝勞改農場（後改爲勞教農場）的《計劃任務書》，讀者從中可以看到，一個紙面上看似設想周全、合理的勞改農場，如何在現實中卻成爲死亡集中營。
邢同義還通過當年酒泉縣檢察院的檢察官，瞭解到當時因“抗拒勞教”而被起訴的四十多名“右派分子”的情況，這是目前關於“反右運動”的作品較少觸及的內容。邢認爲，這些人是“不幸者中的最大不幸者”，他們大多是因飢餓而偷喫、盜竊或者發表“反動言論”而被起訴。這一個個不幸者的故事，讓宏大歷史中的模糊面孔變得真實而清晰，也揭示出政治運動的殘酷與荒誕。例如，邢同義在書中詳細講述了“右派分子”馬述麒的故事。當時農場一頭黑騸騾因與其他牲畜搶食而被踢傷，經精心護理仍不治而死亡。因爲黑騸騾是重要勞力，農場爲此寫了一份詳細的說明材料，還向酒泉縣人民檢察院提請以破壞生產罪逮捕當時擔任飼養組組長的馬述麒，指其偷喫牲口飼料才導致牲畜打架。而與此形成鮮明對照的，是大批因勞累和飢餓而死亡的右派分子，死後連一個墳頭都沒有，遑論像樣的死亡報告。
《恍若隔世》中親歷者的講述清晰揭示出，“反右”並非如官方所說，是一場不小心走過頭的言論糾偏運動，而是當權者對於異議言論的蓄意打壓；大饑荒也並非不可抗的自然災害，而是極權制度下的一場人禍。書中不少受訪者，包括作者自己，都將問題歸結於共產黨因犯了“左”的錯誤而將反右運動推向極端。但書中人物的經歷表明，這些右派知識分子明明都是共產黨的忠實擁護者。他們在中央號召下提出的建議，從反官僚、反特權，到警惕“黨天下”，都恰恰是爲了幫助黨踐行其掌權之初對全社會的承諾，結果卻因言獲罪。
通過這些個人講述，我們可以看到，在1949年後政治運動頻仍的中國，處於不同歷史時期的人們，遭遇卻如此相似，背後的極權邏輯也一以貫之。當社會中只有一種聲音，當權者就可以壟斷真相、“指鼠爲鴨”, 只爲講好整齊劃一的“中國故事”。近年的例證之一就是新冠疫情中的封控政策：民衆在荒謬的封控之下艱難求生，官方卻在另一邊製造着舉國體制戰勝疫情的幻象，並將所有試圖傳播真相的人劃爲敵對者或境外勢力。諷刺的是，反右運動中，有的人（例如書中的李景沆）是因爲提意見不夠積極而被打成右派，學校領導認爲他“不說，卻比說還要反動”。可見，在翻雲覆雨的政治運動裹挾之下，人們連沉默的基本自由都被剝奪，就像2022年底不堪忍受而發起白紙抗議的人們，連舉起一張白紙都成了罪過。
通過挖掘被埋葬的真相，邢同義讓那些被官方長年屏蔽的、歷史幕後的主角走到了前臺，爲無聲者提供了發聲的平臺。如今，網絡的存在讓個人更容易分享自己的故事，但同時我們也面臨更加嚴酷的言論審查和更具隱蔽性的政治宣傳。即便如此，還是有無數爲真相和自由而奔走的行動者，一次又一次冒着失去自由的代價，記錄下我們這個時代的歷史。這些珍貴的記錄，讓不同時空的普通人得以看到對方，意識到自身境遇的系統性，也將不斷爲人們爭取自由的抗爭提供動力和指引。
本期推薦檔案：
邢同義：《恍如隔世——回眸夾邊溝》
A Survivor Looks Back at China’s Most Notorious Labor Camp
From 1956 to 1957, following the Chinese Communist Party’s call for “letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend,” intellectuals from all walks of life actively offered their opinions and advice to the Party. However, tens of thousands were soon labelled as bourgeois rightists, and accused of launching “vicious attacks against the Party.” Among them, around 3,000 were sent to the state-run Jiabiangou Labor Camp, located in the Gobi Desert near Jiuquan in Gansu Province, for Re-education through Labor.
Those who were sent to Jiabiangou were a small fraction of over 500,000 individuals labeled rightists across the country, but their fates were among the most cruel. Brutal labor and an unprecedented famine turned the camp into a mass grave for more than 2,000. Those who survived carried with them harrowing memories that shadowed the rest of their lives.
In the early 2000s, thanks to China’s relatively relaxed environment for free speech, some survivors of Jiabiangou began publishing memoirs and giving interviews to share their experiences, hoping to alert the public and prevent such tragedies from happening again. At the same time, the horrific events at Jiabiangou also drew the attention of journalists and writers. They dedicated substantial time and resources to visiting survivors and the families of victims, researching archival materials, and attempting to reconstruct and bring to light this dark chapter of history.
Worlds Away: A Look Back at Jiabiangou is one such product of this period. The author, Xing Tongyi, spent several years writing it. By uncovering fragments hidden in the crevices of time, he pieced together a relatively complete and reliable historical portrait of Jiabiangou. Xing formerly served as Deputy Secretary of the Jiuquan Municipal Party Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Jiuquan Municipal People’s Congress. This background gave him access to key historical documents and individuals. As a result, the book not only presents oral accounts from those involved but also supplements them with important historical context and information.
For example, through the later director of the Jiabiangou Forest Farm, Xing obtained the “Project Assignment Document” for establishing the Jiabiangou labor farm. Readers can see how a seemingly well-thought-out and reasonable reform-through-labor farm on paper became a death camp.
Xing also learned from prosecutors then working at the local procuratorate about more than forty Rightists who were prosecuted for resisting re-education through labor—a subject rarely touched upon in existing literature about the Anti-Rightist Movement. Xing considers these people “the most unfortunate among the unfortunate.” Most of them were prosecuted for stealing food due to starvation, petty theft, or making reactionary remarks.
Their tragic stories give real faces and clarity to otherwise vague historical figures, exposing the cruelty and absurdity of political campaigns. For instance, the book recounts in detail the story of Rightist Ma Shuqin. At the time, a black mule was injured during a fight over food with other animals and later died despite careful treatment. Because the mule was a vital source of labor, the farm submitted a detailed report and requested that the local procuratorate arrest Ma, who was head of the feeding team, on the charge of “sabotaging production,” alleging he caused the fight by stealing animal feed. In stark contrast, countless Rightists died from exhaustion and hunger, their bodies buried without graves, let alone any formal death records.
The firsthand accounts in Worlds Away make clear that the Anti-Rightist Campaign was not, as officially claimed, a well-intentioned but overzealous movement, but a deliberate crackdown on dissent by those in power. Similarly, the Great Famine was not an unavoidable natural disaster, but a man-made catastrophe under an authoritarian regime. Many interviewees in the book, including the author himself, attribute the problems to the Communist Party’s “leftist” mistakes that pushed the Anti-Rightist Campaign to the extreme.
But the experiences of the people profiled in the book show that these so-called Rightist intellectuals were, in fact, loyal supporters of the Communist Party. Their proposals—ranging from opposing bureaucracy and privilege to warning against “one-party dominance”—were precisely meant to help the Party fulfill the promises it made to society when it first came to power. Yet they were punished for speaking out.
Through these personal narratives, we can see that in post-1949 China, a country marked by successive political movements, people from different eras often suffered in strikingly similar ways, all rooted in the same authoritarian logic. When only one voice is allowed in society, those in power can monopolize the truth and “call a mouse a duck,” all in the name of crafting a unified “China story.”
A recent example of this is the strict lockdown policy during the COVID-19 pandemic: while ordinary people struggled to survive under absurd restrictions, the state propagated an illusion of national triumph over the virus, branding anyone trying to tell the truth as an enemy or foreign force. Ironically, during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, some people (such as Li Jinghang, mentioned in the book) were labeled Rightists not for speaking out, but for not speaking enthusiastically enough. School authorities accused him of being “more reactionary by staying silent than by speaking.”
This shows that in the unpredictable tides of political movements, even the basic freedom to remain silent can be stripped away—just like those in late 2022 who could no longer endure and joined the White Paper protests, where even raising a blank sheet of paper became a crime.
By unearthing buried truths, Xing brings the long-silenced protagonists of history to the forefront. Today, the Internet allows individuals to more easily share their stories, but we also face more stringent censorship and increasingly subtle political propaganda. Even so, countless people continue to risk their freedom to document the truth of our time. These invaluable records enable ordinary people across time and space to see and understand each other, to recognize the systemic nature of their own suffering, and to draw strength and guidance in the ongoing struggle for freedom.
Recommended archive:
Xing Tongyi: Worlds Away: A Look Back at Jiabiangou