Liu Xiaobo: His Writings, His Life, His Win

Liu Xiaobo: His Writings, His Life, His Win

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Liu Xiaobo – His Writings, His Life, His Win

I?ve never met Liu Xiaobo. I only know him through his powerful writings?and through watching compelling interviews with him, most notably in the prize-winning documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a film about the 1989 protests. The film spawned a wide-ranging website that includes a section on the movie?s main characters?a very good first destination for anyone trying to get up to speed on the past activities and recent trials of the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner.

There?s been an enormous amount that?s gone up online already today on Liu and the meaning of the award he just received?enough that Maura Cunningham, who edits the ?China Beat? blog to which I often contribute, has already put up a useful wrap-up post on the first wave of analyses. The best early responses to the news include some excellent pieces of instant analysis by people such as the New Yorker?s Evan Osnos, who, unlike me, can write about the issue as an individual who has spoken with and gotten to know the inspiring gadfly intellectual, during the relatively rare periods in the last two decades when Liu has been out of prison.

There are many things about the prize that are worth considering, from the way the news of the award is being censored and spun in the PRC to global responses to Liu?s win. Here, I?ll just use a brief reflection on a seemingly unrelated event, the Frankfurt Book Fair of a year ago, to draw attention to some aspects of the award and its meaning.

Every year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world?s largest event of its kind, one country is singled out for special attention as the ?guest of honor? nation. Last year, China had that distinction. If you didn?t know that this year?s ?guest of honor? is Argentina, that?s no surprise, as its turn in the spotlight hasn?t generated many international headlines. China?s did. This was due to Beijing?s efforts to keep several writers who had drawn the ire of the government from participating in related public events scheduled to take place before the Fair. These moves by the government backfired. Not only did the writers speak anyway, but China?s failed attempts to prevent them from doing so became the big story of the 2009 Book Fair, which the Chinese media had dubbed as a literary ?Olympics.? (This was part of an effort to keep the buzz generated by the actual Olympics in 2008 going?in the same manner, the World Expo underway in Shanghai now is being touted as an ?Economic Olympics.?) Beijing had hoped it would draw attention only to the works of officially endorsed authors.

I don?t know how much the Chinese government?s efforts to keep the Nobel committee from honoring Liu Xiaobo contributed to his winning the prize. He would likely have gotten it regardless. Once again, though, we have seen a ham-handed effort to interfere with an international event hurt rather than help Beijing. Liu Xiaobo got the award, despite the pressure. He was honored above all for his role in the Charter 08 petition drive, inspired by Václav Havel et al?s Charter 77. And China?s leaders made it natural for foreign coverage of the story to present them in a doubly negative light: as the sort of rulers who not only clamp down on expressions of dissent at home (even by someone like Liu, who has shown a determination to pursue relatively moderate rather than militant paths to change), but also try to bully trading partners. This is similar to what happened a year ago, as the Frankfurt Book Fair reporting ended up being largely about Chinese censorship and Chinese efforts to bully Germany. But of course, there are differences. The Nobel Peace Prize is a bigger news peg than the Frankfurt Book Fair; and in pressuring Norway this time, rather than Germany, China was, in economic terms at least, picking on someone even less in its league.