Liao Yiwu was a reluctant dissident.
A Chinese poet and storyteller nourished on Beat generation literature, he picked fights, drank to excess and despised politics.
“I have never taken an interest in mass movements or foreign imports such as democracy, freedom, human rights and love,” he declared as the student pro-democracy movement unfolded in Beijing in 1989. “If destruction is inevitable, let it be.”
Then came the Tiananmen crackdown. Mr. Liao was transformed….
Thank you for re-publishing this. Government oppression is endemic in China, and although this gentleman is not a Christian, many of those that suffer are. One of the most effective ways to deal with such oppression is to expose it – shine a spotlight on it for all to see.