Liao Yiwu
Encyclopedia
Liao Yiwu (born 1958 in Sichuan
), is a Chinese author, reporter, musician, and poet. He is a
critic of China's Communist regime
, for which he has been imprisoned. His books, several of which are collections of interviews with ordinary people from the lower rungs of Chinese society, were published in Taiwan
and Hong Kong
but are banned in mainland China; some have been translated into English, French and German.
After High School, Liao traveled around the country. In his spare time he read banned Western poets such as John Keats
and Charles Baudelaire
. He also started composing his own poems and was getting published in literary magazines.
He failed the university entrance exams and began to work for a newspaper. When his poetry was noticed, the Chinese Ministry of Culture
gave him a paid position as state writer.
On June 1989, after hearing about the Tiananmen Square protests
, Liao composed a long poem entitled "Massacre." Knowing that it would never be published, he made an audiotape and recited the poem by using Chinese ritualistic chanting and howling, invoking the spirits of the dead. Liao and friends made a movie, the sequel of Massacre, "Requiem."
He was arrested in February 1990 as he was boarding a train with six friends and his pregnant wife, all of whom were arrested also. Liao received a four year sentence. He was placed on the government's permanent blacklist. While in prison, due to torture and abusive punishment, he suffered several mental breakdowns and twice attempted suicide. He was known as "the big lunatic." From a fellow prisoner, an elderly monk, he learned to play the Xiao
. He then began to interview other prisoners about their lives.
When he was released from prison, his wife and their daughter had left him, and his former literary friends kept their distance. He lived for a while as a homeless street musician in Chengdu
, collecting stories.
In 1998 he compiled The Fall of the Holy Temple, an anthology of underground poems from the 1970s, mainly from Chinese dissidents. One of China's vice premiers called it a "premeditated attempt to overthrow the government, and is supported by powerful anti-China groups."
In 2001 his multi-volume Interviews with People from the Bottom Rung of Society was published in Taiwan. The book consists of transcribed interviews with people on the margins of Chinese society, from "hustlers to drifters, outlaws and street performers, the officially renegade and the physically handicapped, those who deal with human waste and with the wasting of humans, artists and shamans, crooks, even cannibals." It is currently banned in China, like most of his works. He was arrested several times for conducting "illegal interviews" and for exposing the dark side of the Communist Party.
A French translation of some of these interviews titled L'Empire des bas-fonds appeared in 2003. An English translation of 27 of the interviews was published under the name The Corpse Walker in 2008. A German translation, Fräulein Hallo und der Bauernkaiser, appeared in 2009.
In 2008 he signed the Charter 08
of his friend Liu Xiaobo
, although he says of himself that he is not really interested in politics, just in his stories.
In May 2008, after the Sichuan earthquake
, Liao went to the disaster region and interviewed survivors fighting corrupt officials. This material was published as Chronicles of the Big Earthquake in Hong Kong in 2009. The French translation Quand la terre s’est ouverte au Sichuan : Journal d’une tragédie appeared in 2010.
After having been denied permission to leave the country many times, he wrote an open letter to Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel
in February 2010. Later that year he was allowed to leave the country for the first time. He visited Germany accepting invitations to literary festivals in Hamburg and Berlin as well as to an event in Cologne. He held numerous readings and gave interviews. On stage, he sang songs, played the flute and drank hard liquor.
He lives with his wife in Chengdu, supporting himself with the royalties from his books published abroad. He remains under police surveillance.
Liao arrived in Germany on July 6, 2011, having left China overland by crossing the border with Vietnam.
.
Poems
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
), is a Chinese author, reporter, musician, and poet. He is a
critic of China's Communist regime
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, for which he has been imprisoned. His books, several of which are collections of interviews with ordinary people from the lower rungs of Chinese society, were published in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
but are banned in mainland China; some have been translated into English, French and German.
Becoming a state writer
Liao was born in 1958, the same year as The Great Leap Forward. During the famine of The Great Leap Forward, he suffered from oedema and was close to dying. In 1966 his father was branded a counter-revolutionary during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Liao's parents filed for divorce to protect the children. His mother was arrested for attempting to sell government issued coupons on the black market.After High School, Liao traveled around the country. In his spare time he read banned Western poets such as John Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
and Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
. He also started composing his own poems and was getting published in literary magazines.
He failed the university entrance exams and began to work for a newspaper. When his poetry was noticed, the Chinese Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Culture is a ministry of the government of the People's Republic of China which is responsible for culture policy and activities in the country, including managing national museums and monuments; Astroturfing and promoting government policies; promoting and protecting the arts The...
gave him a paid position as state writer.
Criticism of the system and imprisonment
In Spring 1989, two magazine companies took advantage of the relaxed politics and carried Liao's long poems "The Yellow City" and "Idol." In the poems, he criticized the system, calling it paralyzed and eaten away by a collective leukemia. The poems were deemed anti-communist and he was questioned and detained and his home was searched.On June 1989, after hearing about the Tiananmen Square protests
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, Liao composed a long poem entitled "Massacre." Knowing that it would never be published, he made an audiotape and recited the poem by using Chinese ritualistic chanting and howling, invoking the spirits of the dead. Liao and friends made a movie, the sequel of Massacre, "Requiem."
He was arrested in February 1990 as he was boarding a train with six friends and his pregnant wife, all of whom were arrested also. Liao received a four year sentence. He was placed on the government's permanent blacklist. While in prison, due to torture and abusive punishment, he suffered several mental breakdowns and twice attempted suicide. He was known as "the big lunatic." From a fellow prisoner, an elderly monk, he learned to play the Xiao
Xiao (flute)
The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo . It is also sometimes called dòngxiāo , dòng meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is shùdí The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo (called...
. He then began to interview other prisoners about their lives.
When he was released from prison, his wife and their daughter had left him, and his former literary friends kept their distance. He lived for a while as a homeless street musician in Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
, collecting stories.
Work after his release, and international success
Liao processed the time in prison with his book Testimonials. A German translation of this work is planned for 2010.In 1998 he compiled The Fall of the Holy Temple, an anthology of underground poems from the 1970s, mainly from Chinese dissidents. One of China's vice premiers called it a "premeditated attempt to overthrow the government, and is supported by powerful anti-China groups."
In 2001 his multi-volume Interviews with People from the Bottom Rung of Society was published in Taiwan. The book consists of transcribed interviews with people on the margins of Chinese society, from "hustlers to drifters, outlaws and street performers, the officially renegade and the physically handicapped, those who deal with human waste and with the wasting of humans, artists and shamans, crooks, even cannibals." It is currently banned in China, like most of his works. He was arrested several times for conducting "illegal interviews" and for exposing the dark side of the Communist Party.
A French translation of some of these interviews titled L'Empire des bas-fonds appeared in 2003. An English translation of 27 of the interviews was published under the name The Corpse Walker in 2008. A German translation, Fräulein Hallo und der Bauernkaiser, appeared in 2009.
In 2008 he signed the Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
of his friend Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo is a Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist who called for political reforms and the end of communist single-party rule in China...
, although he says of himself that he is not really interested in politics, just in his stories.
In May 2008, after the Sichuan earthquake
2008 Sichuan earthquake
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Msand 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST...
, Liao went to the disaster region and interviewed survivors fighting corrupt officials. This material was published as Chronicles of the Big Earthquake in Hong Kong in 2009. The French translation Quand la terre s’est ouverte au Sichuan : Journal d’une tragédie appeared in 2010.
After having been denied permission to leave the country many times, he wrote an open letter to Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
in February 2010. Later that year he was allowed to leave the country for the first time. He visited Germany accepting invitations to literary festivals in Hamburg and Berlin as well as to an event in Cologne. He held numerous readings and gave interviews. On stage, he sang songs, played the flute and drank hard liquor.
He lives with his wife in Chengdu, supporting himself with the royalties from his books published abroad. He remains under police surveillance.
April 2011: Travel Ban for "National Security" Reasons, Arrival in Germany
Liao Yiwu in an email dated April 1, 2011 wrote:Friends:
I originally planned to leave for the United States on April 4 in order to make a publicity tour for my book God is Red which will be published in English translation by Harper Collins and for my book The Corpse Walker which was published by Random House.
Unexpectedly, on March 28th, the police issued an order forbidding me to leave China.
I had originally planned to travel to San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington and other cities and to give lectures, readings and musical performances at Harvard, Yale and other universities as well as participate in the New York Literary Festival where I was to make a speech and perform, and to have a dialogue with writers from around the world on the theme "Contemporary Writer and Bearing Witness to History". Now all this has been canceled.
My new book is also going to be published in Australia. My plan to travel from the United States to Australia has also been canceled.
Ever since my return from Germany last year, I have been closely monitored. The police have "invited me to drink tea" many times. My writing has been repeatedly interrupted.
I have once again been forbidden to travel abroad for national security reasons.
Over the last ten or so years I have strived to get the right to travel abroad 16 times. I succeeded once and failed 15 times.
Thank you all for your concern for me over the years.
Liao Yiwu
Liao arrived in Germany on July 6, 2011, having left China overland by crossing the border with Vietnam.
Awards
In 2003, he received a Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammett Grant, and in 2007, he received a Freedom to Write Award from the Independent Chinese PEN Center. Authorities prevented him from attending the award ceremony in Beijing. In 2011 he was awarded the German Geschwister-Scholl-PreisGeschwister-Scholl-Preis
The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which was initiated in 1980 by the State Association of Bavaria in the Stock Market Society of the German Book Trade and the city of Munich...
.
List of works
Books- The Corpse Walker (2002)
- In Engish, The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China from the Bottom Up, hardcover: Pantheon (April 15, 2008), 336 pages, ISBN 978-0375425424; trade paperback: Anchor; Reprint edition (May 5, 2009) 352 pages, ISBN 978-0307388377
- The Fall of the Holy Temple (1998)
- Report on China’s Victims of Injustice
- Testimonials (证词) An expanded German translation will be published in Germany by Fischer in June 2011. Testimonials" describes the horrific treatment of Liao Yiwu and other political prisoners in a Chongqing prison who were arrested after the June 4, 1989 crackdown.
- Interviews with the Lower Strata of Chinese Society 中国底层访谈录 2 volumes, Changjiang Publishing House, China (banned by the Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Department and the PRC Government's Publications Office)
- Interviews with the Lower Strata of Chinese Society 中国底层访谈录 3 volumes, Maitian Publishing House of Taiwan 台湾麦田出版社.
- China's Unjust Court Cases 中国冤案录 Volume 1, Laogai Foundation, 2003, Washington, D.C. (www.laogai.org) Black Literary Treasury, Edited by Liao Tianqi.
- China's Petitioner Villages 中国上访村 Mirror Publishing Co., 2005, USA
- China's Unjust Court Cases 中国冤案录 Volume 2, Laogai Foundation, Washington, 2005 D.C. Black Literary Treasury, Edited by Liao Tianqi.
- The Last of China's Landlords 最后的地主 (two volumes) printed in Hong Kong, published by The Laogai Research Foundation, Washington D.C. in April 2008. Website www.laogai.org ISBN 978-1-931550-19-2
- Earthquake Insane Asylum 地震疯人院 in Taiwan 2009; French edition 2010.
- Forthcoming: Shepherds of the Far East 远东牧羊 April 2011 in the U.S. and its English translation God is Red scheduled for publication by Harper Collins in the United States in August 2011. Chinese 地震疯人院 in Taiwan 2009; French edition 2010. God is Red collects accounts of the persecution of Christians in China since 1949. My Witness in German translation June 2011 which book discusses the experiences of Liao Yiwu and other political prisoners in a Chongqing prison in the early 1990s.
Poems
- "The Yellow City" (1989)
- "Idol" (1989)
- "Massacre" (1989)
External links and further reading
- The Public Toilet Manager, interview by Liao Yiwu, The Paris Review, Summer 2005
- The Leper and the Corpse Walkers, interview by Liao Yiwu, The Paris Review, Winter 2006
- The Peasant Emperor and the Retired Official, interview by Liao Yiwu, The Paris Review, Winter 2007
- My Enemies, My Teachers by Liao Yiwu, The Paris Review, Winter 2007. Planned acceptance speech for the Freedom to Write award.
- The Survivor, interview by Liao Yiwu, The Paris Review, Summer 2008
- Nineteen Days by Liao Yiwu, The Paris Review, Summer 2009. Commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.
- Drift to Live by Brian Awehali, LOUDCANARY, Spring 2011. In-depth profile of Liao Yiwu based on a series of in-person interviews conducted in 2010.
- "Walking Out on China" opinion by Liao Yiwu in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
September 14, 2011