China: The Poet in an Unknown Prison

In response to China's Charter 08 (January 15, 2009)

On April 16, the PEN American Centernamed the Beijing-based writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo the recipientof the 2009 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. The awardhonors international literary figures who have been persecuted orimprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom ofexpression.

Liu is a literary critic, activist, andpoet who participated in the pro- democracy movement in China in thespring of 1989. After the Tiananmen crackdown he spent two years inprison, and since then has been often harassed by the police andimprisoned several times for his political activism and writing. OnDecember 8, 2008, he was arrested for signing Charter 08, a declarationcalling for democracy, human rights, and an end to one-party rule inChina, which has now been signed by over 8,500 people throughout thecountry. Since his arrest Liu has been held without charges or trial atan unknown location in Beijing.

The following remarks were sent to PEN by Liu's wife, Liu Xia, and read at the award ceremony in New York on April 28.

—The Editors of The New York Review of Books

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pity that both my husband Liu Xiaobo and I could not be present this evening to receive this award.

Twenty-six years ago, both of us were writing modern poetry. It isthrough our poetry that we became acquainted and eventually fell inlove. Six years later, the unprecedented student democratic movementand massacre occurred in Beijing. Xiaobo dutifully stood his groundand, consequently, became widely known as one of the so-called June 4"black hands." His life then changed forever. He has been put into jailseveral times, and even when he is at home, he is still, for the mostpart, not a free man. As his wife, I have no other choice but to becomea part of his unfortunate life.

Yet I am not a vassal of Liu Xiaobo. I am very fond of poetry andpainting, but at the same time, I have not come to view Xiaobo as apolitical figure. In my eyes, he has always been and will always be anawkward and diligent poet. Even in prison, he has continued to writehis poems. When the warden took away his paper and pen, he simplypulled his verse out of thin air. Over the past twenty years, Xiaoboand I have accumulated hundreds of such poems, which were born of theconversations between our souls. I would like to quote one here:

Before you enter the grave

Don't forget to write me with your ashes

Do not forget to leave your address in the nether world

Another Chinese poet, Liao Yiwu, has commented on Xiaobo's poem: "Hecarries the burden of those who died on June 4 in his love, in hishatred, and in his prayers. Such poems could have been written in theNazis' concentration camps or by the Decembrists in Imperial Russia.Which brings to mind the famous sentence: 'It is barbaric to writepoetry after Auschwitz.'" Such statements are also characteristic ofthe situation in China after 1989.

I understand, however, that this award is not meant to encourage LiuXiaobo the poet, but rather to encourage Liu Xiaobo the politicalcommentator and initiator of Charter 08. I would like to remindeveryone of the close connection between these two identities. I feelthat Xiaobo is using his intensity and passion as a poet to push thedemocracy movement forward in China. He shouts passion-ately as a poet"no, no, no" to the dictators.

In private, he whispers gently to the dead souls of June 4, who, tothis day, have not received justice, as well as to me and to all hisdear friends: "yes, yes."

Finally, I extend my deepest gratitude to the PEN American Center,the Independent Chinese PEN Center, and everyone in attendance at thisevent tonight.

—Liu Xia, April 17, 2009, at my not-free home in Beijing

Translated from the Chinese by Liao Tienchi

Published 28 May 2009, The New York Review of Book