Yang Xiaokai (October 6, 1948 - July 7, 2004), also known as Yang Xiguang, was an economist. Yang was born in Dunhua, Jilin Province and grew up in Changsha, Hunan Province. Yang's father was a senior CCP cadre in Hunan, who was labeled a Rightist Opportunist for his support of Peng Dehuai, the defense minister, who was dismissed for pointing out the failures of the Great Leap Forward. Yang was rehabilitated in 1962. When the Cultural Revolution broke out, Yang's parents were labeled Counterrevolutionaries, and Yang, who was in high school, became a child of one of the "Five Black Categories," which formed what was essentially a permanent underclass in Mao's China (the others were landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, and bad elements). Yang then joined the Rebel Faction of Red Guards. In 1968, Yang wrote a Dazibao (big-character poster) entitled "*Where is China Going?* ", where he criticized China's privileged bureaucratic class, and advocated the establishment of a Paris Commune-style government. As a result, Yang was detained in a detention center for more than a year, and was then sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for counterrevolutionary crimes in 1969, and was exiled to work in a labor camp in Hunan province until he was released in early 1978. Yang later wrote a book about his experiences during these ten years entitled *Captive Spirits: Prisoners of the Cultural Revolution*.
Inspired by Marx’s *Capital*, which Yang read in the detention center, he decided to become an economist and taught himself economics in prison. After his release in 1978, he was admitted to the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and received a master's degree in econometrics. In 1982, he was employed as a lecturer at Wuhan University. In 1983, the High People’s Court of Hunan Province announced that the counterrevolutionary conviction of Yang had been annulled. In the same year, Yang went to Princeton University and received his Ph.D. in economics in 1988. In 1990, Yang was appointed as a tenured professor at Monash University in Australia. In 1993, he was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. He died on July 7, 2004, at his home in Melbourne, Australia, due to illness.
Yang's achievements in economics include the development of inframarginal economics and the new classical economics, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Economics twice, in 2002 and 2003.
Inspired by Marx’s *Capital*, which Yang read in the detention center, he decided to become an economist and taught himself economics in prison. After his release in 1978, he was admitted to the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and received a master's degree in econometrics. In 1982, he was employed as a lecturer at Wuhan University. In 1983, the High People’s Court of Hunan Province announced that the counterrevolutionary conviction of Yang had been annulled. In the same year, Yang went to Princeton University and received his Ph.D. in economics in 1988. In 1990, Yang was appointed as a tenured professor at Monash University in Australia. In 1993, he was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. He died on July 7, 2004, at his home in Melbourne, Australia, due to illness.
Yang's achievements in economics include the development of inframarginal economics and the new classical economics, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Economics twice, in 2002 and 2003.
