Brilliant interview with noted historian Wu Si regarding the illegal kilns in Shanxi and forced labor in general. HUGE props to Joel Martinson for the great translation. Wu Si dug through the archives and notes that forced labor, especially in the mining sector, has a long and tortuous history. Disconnects and dissonances between the central government and local power structures hamstrung efforts by the central government to eradicate the practice in the Ming and Qing, just as is the case today.
The very definition of a must-read. Go there. Now.