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. They talked about literature, emigration, and politics. If they had tried to have this conversation in China, it could have been considered illegal.
Liao Yiwu, the writer, poet, and “memory keeper” has been living in Germany since 2011, when he escaped China after being repeatedly banned from leaving the country. In 1990 Liao Yiwu was imprisoned for four years for his poem “Massacre,” which he wrote in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. His experiences in prison became the basis for his book For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poet’s Journey Through a Chinese Prison. Liao Yiwu is also the author of The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up and God is Red.
Living in Germany, Tienchi Martin-Liao is the president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, whose members include Liao Yiwu and imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo. She is a writer, researcher, and activist who currently writes “Blind Chess” as a Sampsonia Way columnist. Her close friendship with Liao Yiwu helped him have his work published in Germany.