Welcome Speech
by Tienchi Martin-Liao, ICPC president
On behalf of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, I would, regardless of the normal courtesy, like to first greet our colleagues and friends from Mainland China. My cordial and sincere congratulations to you, welcome to Hong Kong, we know it is not easy for you to make this trip.
To our special guests, Vice-president of PEN International Ms. Joanne Leedom-Ackerman and Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee Ms. Marian Botsford Fraser, my affectionate greetings and gratitude, I want to thank you for your years of efforts in caring about the safety of Chinese Writers in Prison. Mr. Takeaki Hori, International Secretary of PEN International, is ICPC’s good friend, it is our honor to have his presence today.
I am most touched by our colleagues from PEN American Center, Leedom-Ackerman , Steven Isenberg, Larry Siems, Hannah Pakula and Sarah Hoffman, who show solidarity with ICPC since its founding. Larry, Steven together with Marian have just visited Beijing, regardless of the risks and troubles, they met with some members of ICPC, and they also tried to meet with our imprisoned members and their families. This is true friendship and a kind of chevalier spirit.
We are honored to have scholars from Taiwan and Hong Kong to be our panelists.
We all know the severe repression in China at the moment, therefore it is a pleasant surprise, yes, almost a miracle that the two winners of Freedom to Write Award and Lin Zhao Memorial Award, Mr. Ye Fu and Ms. Cui Weiping as well as the former awardee Mr. Xu Zerong are able to attend this event. On the other hand, it is a shame that the two awardees of the first Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award, Mr. Liu Xianbin and Mr. Zarganar of Burma are still in prison. However I am convinced that their spirit and ideas are with us today.
Besides the awarding ceremony, we also celebrate the 10th anniversary of ICPC. Three of the 31 founding members, Bei Ling, Ma Jian and Meng Lang can be here today, their presence puts more weight and delight to our meeting.
However, one person is missing today, he is the president of the PEN American Center, Prof. Anthony Appiah of Princeton University. He was denied entrance to China together with Sarah Hoffman, the leading staff in the American PEN office. Sarah decided to come to HK to join us, she is here among us today. Anthony nominated Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize, I believe this is the reason that he is not allowed to enter the Chinese border. Another reason that I mention Prof. Appiah is that, he is not only a distinguished writer, philosopher and scholar, he also has a deep cultural connection to China.
Prof. Appiah’s grandmother is Lady Isobel Cripps (1891-1979), who founded the British United Aid to China, BUAC, in 1946. The mission of it was to support the Chinese people, who had suffered 8 years of war against Japan and were living under extreme poverty. She came to Hong Kong and China in 1946 and met with Generalissimo and Madam Chiang Kai-Shek. She also met with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De. She not only traveled to the large cities but also to very remote villages.
Lady Cripps also founded the Sino-British Fellowship Trust in 1947 to support the stranded Chinese scholars in England after the war. She was the first president and kept this position for 30 years. The Trust exists even today, it has financed countless Chinese and English scholars to do their research work in the past half-century. I think that Prof. Anthony Appiah has taken over the legacy from his grandmother, he has shown much concern and care for our ICPC members. I want to express my deep respect and gratitude to him.
Looking back the past decade of ICPC history, it was a pioneer period, filled with hardship and sorrow, but also accompanied with joy and honor. When we see the list of the awardees in the past, there are courageous and distinguished writers. We should be proud of them. We commemorate the dead, miss the imprisoned colleagues and friends, express concern about those who cannot enjoy the freedom of writing and publishing. I am convinced that although the future way is thorny, a broader vision is lying in front of us. Hand in hand we will have the courage to walk straight ahead.
Hong Kong, July 23, 2011