A clandestine network of Mao-era dissidents, “numerous as ox hairs,” shatter myths of Communist ideological unity while anchoring modern China’s freedom struggles in this unbroken lineage of defiance.

By Wu Lei | China Unofficial Archives

Yang Xiaokai (1948-2004) was a renowned Chinese economist. He received two nominations for the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his groundbreaking theories of new classical economics and super marginal analysis, earning him the title “the Chinese economist closest to the Nobel Prize.” July 7 marked the 21st anniversary of his passing.

However, the enduring book this economist left us is not an economic treatise; it is Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution

Reading this book offers a truly unique experience. For me, the most significant realization was that even during China’s era of extreme political oppression, like the Cultural Revolution, countless vibrant, individual lives openly pursued their political aspirations. 

Summary by Probe International

Chinese-Australian economist Yang Xiaokai’s Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution defies disciplinary boundaries to unearth China’s suppressed legacy of resistance under Mao.

Penned during Yang’s own decade as a political prisoner—punished for co-authoring the scathing critique of Mao Zedong’s communist regime, Whither China?—the work illuminates clandestine movements, including the Democratic Party and Anti-Communist National Salvation Army, which thrived in the shadows of Maoist totalitarianism.

Through searing profiles of jailed dissidents (intellectuals Liu Fengxiang and journalist Su Yibang), Yang exposes a vibrant underground civil society that critiqued Maoism, circulated subversive literature, and forged solidarity networks. Their stories, though “numerous as ox hairs” yet erased from official histories, dismantle the myth of Communist ideological unanimity, preserving a legacy of defiance that predates—and foreshadows—contemporary struggles for freedom.

By resurrecting their silenced voices, Captive Spirits indicts China’s centuries-spanning pattern of state violence, positioning political prisoners as both its most damning evidence and its most resilient counterforce.

Read the essay in full at the publisher’s website here.