From the Shenzhen Daily:
Veteran journalist Li Yuanjiang, who founded China’s first press group and was later sentenced to prison for accepting bribes, has become the first person in Guangdong to complete a Ph.D. in prison.
Li, former president of the Guangzhou Daily Press Group, has so far served three years of a 12-year term in Sihui Prison.
On Aug. 2, Li, 54, received a certificate from school of international relations of Renmin University, yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily cited Shang Dongping, head of Sihui Prison as saying.
Li Jingzhi, a Renmin University professor, lauded Li Yuanjiang’s graduation thesis on the internationalization of Chinese media as having “great academic value.”
Frankly, I think he may be on to something. How much easier it would be to finish a dissertation without all of those nasty distractions like “fresh air,” “travel,” and not having to waste time TAing to come up with the cash for big ticket items such as “food,” “shelter,” and “clothing.”
Not that Li is study, study, study. In his spare time, he is famously an editor and writer for the prison newspaper.
“I know the operations of the paper, this is my speciality,” Li had said in an interview by the China Daily in 2006.
Li reportedly writes 10 stories for the prison newspaper every month. According to the China Daily report, Li’s sentence may be reduced on the basis of the number of stories he writes.
In addition to editing the newspaper and writing stories, Li also spends much time reading newspapers and other publications available in prison.
Li was convicted of soliciting bribes and sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2004.
Why the favorable coverage? Back in 2006, when news of Li’s prison newspaper job was reported sympathetically in the mainland press, Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei had this suggestion:
Could it be that Li has some supporters at the China Daily? Or is just because editors and journalists in China are always at risk of ending up in jail, and it good to know that their media careers won’t end there?
Now back to my own prison of xeroxed diary entries, document collections, and funding deadlines.
3 responses so far ↓
1 無名 - wu ming // Sep 20, 2007 at 11:19 pm
funny, i thought grad school was prison.
house arrest, anyway.
2 花崗齋之愚公 // Sep 22, 2007 at 4:17 pm
A prison of our own making–if I’m permitted to resort to cliche.
3 Froog // Sep 26, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Well, if you keep up with the TAM posts, and the walking around without your “papers”…. you might just get your wish here in China, J.
I love the remission of sentence for prolificity of writing idea. If he churns out 20 articles a month, will he be out in 5 years instead of 12?
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