Category Archives: Tienchi Martin-Liao

Tienchi Martin-Liao has been the president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center in 2009-2013 and since February 2016. Previously she worked at the Institute for Asian Affairs in Hamburg, Germany, and lectured at the Ruhr-University Bochum from 1985 to 1991. She became head of the Richard-Wilhelm Research Center for Translation in 1991 until she took a job in 2001 as director of the Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) to work on human rights issues. She was at LRF until 2009. Martin-Liao has served as deputy director of the affiliated China Information Center and was responsible for updating the Laogai Handbook and working on the Black Series, autobiographies of Chinese political prisoners and other human rights books.

Tienchi Martin-Liao:Rice-Delivery-Party-A philanthropic e-commerce project provides financial aid to the families of Chinese political prisoners

 

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / November 6, 2013

 


Ye Fu and Friends

Head of the Rice Delivery Party, Ye Fu, and friends. Photo courtesy of Tienchi Martin-Liao.
It’s a common name, Butcher’s Shop, and it has become a popular page on taobao.com, Continue reading

Tienchi Martin-Liao:A Mud Battle Fought in A Quagmire-Censorship and corruption in Chinese journalism

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / November 20, 2013


Chen Yongzhou

Express reporter Chen Yongzhu. Photo courtesy of Tienchi Martin-Liao via news.163.com.

Over the last 18 months Chen Yongzhou, Continue reading

Tienchi Martin-Liao:“Reeducation Through Labor” has Been Swept into the Dustbin of History

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / December 4, 2013

The CCP has abolished its system of forced prison labor, but some believe more legal reforms are necessary.

Model of a Laogai solitary confinement cell, Continue reading

Tienchi Martin-Liao:“In the beginning was the Word”

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / December 18, 2013
On the fifth year of Liu Xiaobo’s imprisonment.


Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo. Image: Lunar New Year via Flickr.

Exactly five years ago, on December 6, 2008, Continue reading

“If I’m Not Speaking That Means I’m Dead”: An Interview with Liao Yiwu

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / January 7, 2014

Liao Yiwu (right) with Tienchi Martin-Liao in front of House Poem. Photo: TJ Murphy
On a warm May day in Pittsburgh in 2013, Liao Yiwu sat down with his long-time friend and colleague Tienchi Martin-Liao. Continue reading

Tienchi Martin-Liao:Two Ceremonial Acts, One Bad Omen

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / January 15, 2014 /
As history looms large, tensions flare up between China and Japan.


Xi Jinping and Sinzo Abe

Xi Jinping (L), President of the People’s Republic of China; and Sinzo Abe (R), Prime Minister of Japan. Photos:

There is a famous photograph from 1970 that depicts West German Chancellor Willy Brand kneeling Continue reading

Tienchi Martin-Liao: A Spectre is Haunting China—the Spectre of June 4

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / June 11, 2014

How the Chinese government’s hidden past is torturing its present.

In Memory of Tiananmen Square Protest
The Hong Kong Federation of Social Work students carry a tombstone with the names of June 4th victims in memory of the Tiananmen Square protests. Photo: Bandari Lei via Flickr. Continue reading

Tienchi Martin-Liao:“Creating a Disturbance in a Public Place, Causing Serious Disorder”

by Tienchi Martin-Liao / May 28, 2014

A new period of persecution in China.


Tiananmen May 1989

Student protest in Tiananmen Square, May 1989 Photo: Robert Croma via Flickr Continue reading