Bản tiếng Anh
(@click here) From Christmas to Underwear
Our tasks included packing women's underwear, making copies of audio and video materials, attaching trademarks to various products, processing books, binding books, and making fishing floats, colored Christmas bulbs and accessories to be exported. I participated in all of the manual labor and had a good understanding of each work procedure.
During one hot summer, the prison authorities ordered us to make packages for Gracewell underwear. It was really hot and yet the prisoners hadn't showered for a very long time. They scratched all over their bodies, while being engaged in manual labor. Some of the prisoners scratched their private parts every now and again. When they took out their hands, I saw blood on their fingernails. I was not sure if women would really look graceful in that underwear.
Another time, the prisoners processed a kind of packaged food called "Orchid Beans" for some small business owners. This snack was made from broad beans. They kept trucking broad beans into the prison. In the prison there were barrels in which the broad beans were soaked in water until they were swollen. To spare themselves some trouble when changing water in the barrels, sometimes the prisoners would dump a whole barrel of beans into a dirty urinal and then pour water into the barrel putting the beans inside. When the beans became swollen in the water, the prisoners would start to peel the beans. In front of each person there was a set of parallel knives. The prisoner picked up a bean, rolling it over the knife and removing the bean skin on either side leaving a "golden belt" in the middle. In this way the beans looked good, though they were dirty and muddy. Then, the last step was to throw the beans back into the basket.
At least 10,000 beans had to be peeled in one day to finish the assignment. As the prisoners bustled around peeling the beans, their mucus and sputum mixed with the beans. Then the processed beans were put into a big bag to be taken to the stores where they would be fried. The fried broad beans looked golden and shining. They packed them in beautiful packages and sold them to customers.
The broad beans are in demand in the market and thus provide a high profit to sellers. Consumers enjoy the beans. In a U.S. supermarket, I saw fried broad beans imported from China. I wondered if our prison had made those beans.
Annually, a large number of Christmas items and clothing for western countries are made in Chinese prisons. Once the prison was assigned to make light bulbs. Every day prisoners were supposed to tie copper wires tightly around a plastic tank in a fixed shape and then connect all the light bulbs together. The prisoners' hands were usually bleeding. Needless to say, that stuff from their skin and sexually transmitted diseases were left on the light bulbs.
Once the prison I was in made strings of beads as jewelry accessories. The prisoners used needles and thread to string colored beads and then connected the two ends to make a string of beads. The strings of beads looked beautiful. But, I hope that women don't put them around their necks and that children will not put them in their mouths.
Beijing Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center
Packaged large quantities of disposable chopsticks. Most of them were for use in restaurants and hotels, while some were exported.
Made "Florence Gift Packages"
Beijing Xin'an Labor Camp
Packaged large quantities of disposable chopsticks. Most of them were for use in restaurants and hotels, while some were exported.
Knit sweaters.
Knit woolen gloves (exported to Europe).
Crocheted cushions for tea sets.
Crocheted hats for a company in Qinghe Township, Beijing.
Knit seat cushions.
Re-processed sweaters; removed sundries from yarn.
Made large quantities of slippers. The job was mainly gluing the sole and the instep together, and the labor camp demanded a high-quality product. When I was there, it was the hottest time of the summer. Many practitioners and I were working in our prison cells. Working in a humid prison cell full of irritating glue odors was suffocating. We worked until midnight or one o'clock in the morning every time there was a shipment.
Made stuffed animals, such as rabbits, bears, dolphins, penguins, etc. Major steps included putting the stuffing material inside, stitching the doll together, sewing the eyes, stitching the mouth, etc.
One time we were making gift items for Nestlé; these items included knitted products and crocheted cushions. In order to meet the shipping deadline, we were forced to work in the hallway or lavatories until one or two o'clock in the morning; sometimes we worked through the whole night.