liu xiaobo wins the 2010 nobel
"For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love."
- Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo, ladies and gents, winner of this year's Nobel. People like Liu remind me that China is not a lost cause.
The Chinese Communist Party is, of course, very upset that he won. Especially since he's currently serving 11 years in a Chinese prison for "spreading a message to subvert the country and authority." That message would be Charter 08 (for which he was one of many authors), a document that I hope will be as significant to contemporary Chinese history as the Bill of Rights was for America's. You can read the full English text of Charter 08 here.
The words of this document are familiar--they evoke America's founding documents and hundreds of political speeches--but they really help put into perspective the hyperbole of contemporary Western political discourse. Sure, the U.S. may be a cacophony of squabbling interest groups, but to a man who has spent seven years in prison solely for the crime of speaking against the mainstream, good God, wouldn't that noise sound beautiful! That multitude of opinions, no matter whether they produce the Boston Tea Party or the Republican Tea Party, is precisely what democracy is. And it's not until it goes silent does one appreciate just how much it is missed.
This man has suffered his persecution with uncanny peace, respect, and dignity. Far better than I would. Far better than the vast majority of us, I'd imagine. This is a man, unlike many of his contemporaries in the Chinese democracy movement, with the patience to wait for gradual, nonviolent reform, because he understands the great suffering and ultimate futility of Chinese revolution. This is a man who called off the sit-in he organized in Tiananmen Square in 1989 to negotiate a safe exit for thousands of students, because he felt that democracy in China needed young minds to live on and fight for it more than it needed martyrs. Truly one of the Four Junzi of Tiananmen Square.
In related news, in a display of exceptionalist hubris even the US would find hard to top, a Ministry of Culture-sponsored nonprofit immediately founded its own peace prize, and awarded it to reunificationist former Taiwanese vice president Lien Chan. Nobody cared--least of all Lien himself.
- Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo, ladies and gents, winner of this year's Nobel. People like Liu remind me that China is not a lost cause.
The Chinese Communist Party is, of course, very upset that he won. Especially since he's currently serving 11 years in a Chinese prison for "spreading a message to subvert the country and authority." That message would be Charter 08 (for which he was one of many authors), a document that I hope will be as significant to contemporary Chinese history as the Bill of Rights was for America's. You can read the full English text of Charter 08 here.
The words of this document are familiar--they evoke America's founding documents and hundreds of political speeches--but they really help put into perspective the hyperbole of contemporary Western political discourse. Sure, the U.S. may be a cacophony of squabbling interest groups, but to a man who has spent seven years in prison solely for the crime of speaking against the mainstream, good God, wouldn't that noise sound beautiful! That multitude of opinions, no matter whether they produce the Boston Tea Party or the Republican Tea Party, is precisely what democracy is. And it's not until it goes silent does one appreciate just how much it is missed.
This man has suffered his persecution with uncanny peace, respect, and dignity. Far better than I would. Far better than the vast majority of us, I'd imagine. This is a man, unlike many of his contemporaries in the Chinese democracy movement, with the patience to wait for gradual, nonviolent reform, because he understands the great suffering and ultimate futility of Chinese revolution. This is a man who called off the sit-in he organized in Tiananmen Square in 1989 to negotiate a safe exit for thousands of students, because he felt that democracy in China needed young minds to live on and fight for it more than it needed martyrs. Truly one of the Four Junzi of Tiananmen Square.
In related news, in a display of exceptionalist hubris even the US would find hard to top, a Ministry of Culture-sponsored nonprofit immediately founded its own peace prize, and awarded it to reunificationist former Taiwanese vice president Lien Chan. Nobody cared--least of all Lien himself.