Steel Gate to Freedom
The Life of Liu Xiaobo
By (author) Yu Jie Foreword by Jean-Philippe Béja Translated by HC Hsu
Publication date:
16 July 2015Length of book:
260 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781442237131
On December 10, 2010, on stage in Oslo City Hall, an empty chair sat before more than one thousand people, holding only the medal and diploma of the year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner. A larger-than-life photo of a smiling Liu Xiaobo hung in the background.
This striking image is now known throughout the world. But who is Liu Xiaobo? For the first time, this biography by renowned Chinese author and close friend Yu Jie offers a first-hand look into the man behind the empty chair. Dissident, prisoner, poet, scholar, Liu was compelled by intolerable circumstances to embark on a campaign of intellectual dissent, becoming in the course of his journey a leading human rights activist and one of the most important political figures in modern history.
In the quarter century since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, Liu has been unable to lead a normal life. In this first authorized biography, Yu traces an extraordinary man’s odyssey, from growing up in the northeast and Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, through his meteoric rise in Beijing’s intellectual circles and his pivotal role in the Tiananmen protests and subsequent imprisonments, to the founding of the controversial Independent Chinese PEN and groundbreaking Charter 08, his poignant relationship with wife Liu Xia, and winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. It is also a love story between two poets who, though separated by three hundred miles and eleven years behind bars, are united in their persistence to speak truth to power, inspiring countless others.
This striking image is now known throughout the world. But who is Liu Xiaobo? For the first time, this biography by renowned Chinese author and close friend Yu Jie offers a first-hand look into the man behind the empty chair. Dissident, prisoner, poet, scholar, Liu was compelled by intolerable circumstances to embark on a campaign of intellectual dissent, becoming in the course of his journey a leading human rights activist and one of the most important political figures in modern history.
In the quarter century since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, Liu has been unable to lead a normal life. In this first authorized biography, Yu traces an extraordinary man’s odyssey, from growing up in the northeast and Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, through his meteoric rise in Beijing’s intellectual circles and his pivotal role in the Tiananmen protests and subsequent imprisonments, to the founding of the controversial Independent Chinese PEN and groundbreaking Charter 08, his poignant relationship with wife Liu Xia, and winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. It is also a love story between two poets who, though separated by three hundred miles and eleven years behind bars, are united in their persistence to speak truth to power, inspiring countless others.
Political exile Yu presents the unvarnished biography of fellow activist Liu in this intimate portrait of the man "labeled ‘the black hand' behind the Tiananmen student protests." Born during the Cold War, Liu's family's "dining table was a battleground" and his interest in writing began with membership in the Intellectual Youth; by 1984 he'd become a lecturer with a significant following. In diaristic form, Yu relates how Liu became involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and how he was arrested for his leading role. Liu was released but was arrested twice more in the 1990s. In 2003 he helped found the Independent PEN China Center and served as its president until 2007. Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, but was unable to collect it as he was once again arrested, this time for his role in writing—along with Yu and others—a 2008 manifesto, Charter 08, which called for a multiparty system in China. Liu remains imprisoned, but Yu notes that the Internet has offered a way for Liu to communicate with the outside world and continue his political work.