Harry Wu, founder and executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation, is scheduled to speak at Denison University at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 17) in Herrick Auditorium. Wu will present a lecture titled "China Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," which concentrates on his personal experiences with Chinese prison camps.

Wu spent 19 years incarcerated by the Chinese government in the "Bamboo Gulag" as a political prisoner. He now lives in the United States, but has traveled back to China three times since 1991 to secretly visit the same prison camps that once restricted him. He has been devoted to filming the human rights atrocities of the facilities and exposing them to the world.

In 1985 and 1993, Wu testified before the United States Congress on the human rights abuses he had documented and, because of his bravery, he received the Martin Ennals Human Rights Award. He also was awarded the AFL-CIO Award for "outstanding public service and leadership on issues affecting all working men and women" in 1993.

Wu's international best seller "Bitter Winds" is an account of his imprisonment and survival. He also has written "Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade against China's Cruelty," which is about his attempts to document the abuses in Chinese prison camps.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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