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| The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate
ISBN: 9781640122949
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Nebraska Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Political prisoners -- China -- Biography; Dissenters -- China -- Biography; Nobel Prize winners -- Biography;
An Authorlink Top Five Book of 2020
As a fearless poet and prolific essayist and critic, Liu Xiaobo became one of the most important dissident thinkers in the People's Republic of China. His nonviolent activism steered the nation's prodemocracy currents from Tiananmen Square to support for Tibet and beyond. Liu undertook perhaps his bravest act when he helped draft and gather support for Charter 08, a democratic vision for China that included free elections and the end of the Communist Party's monopoly on power. While imprisoned for "inciting subversion of state power," Liu won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. He was granted medical parole just weeks before dying of cancer in 2017.
The Journey of Liu Xiaobo draws together essays and reflections on the "Nelson Mandela of China." The Dalai Lama, artist and activist Ai Weiwei, and a distinguished list of leading Chinese writers and intellectuals, including Zhang Zuhua, the main drafter of Charter 08, and Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo, and noted China scholars, journalists, and political leaders from around the globe, including Yu Ying-shih, Perry Link, Andrew J. Nathan, Marco Rubio, and Chris Smith illuminate Liu's journey from his youth and student years, through his indispensable activism, and to his defiant last days. Many of the pieces were written immediately after Liu's death, adding to the emotions stirred by his loss.
Original and powerful, The Journey of Liu Xiaobo combines memory with insightful analysis to evaluate Liu's impact on his era, nation, and the cause of human freedom.
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. She is vice president emeritus of PEN International and served as chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee while Liu was imprisoned. Leedom-Ackerman later served as the International Secretary of PEN International in the same years Liu Xiaobo was president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC). Yu Zhang is a Chinese citizen based in Sweden. As a scholar, editor, and translator, he is the coordinator of the ICPC's Writers in Prison and the Freedom to Write Committee and served as secretary-general of the ICPC during the years Liu was president of the center. Jie Li is a Chinese American librarian, editor of the Democratic China English website, and a former volunteer for the ICPC. Tienchi Martin-Liao is a Chinese German author, editor, and translator and the president of the ICPC.
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