{"id":2662,"date":"2014-08-18T18:54:48","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T18:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2014-08-18T18:54:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T18:54:48","slug":"tienchi-martin-liaokeep-your-mouth-shut-and-meet-no-reporters-pen-and-chinese-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/tienchi-martin-liaokeep-your-mouth-shut-and-meet-no-reporters-pen-and-chinese-authority","title":{"rendered":"Tienchi Martin-Liao:\u201cKeep Your Mouth Shut and Meet No Reporters\u201d: PEN and Chinese Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 5, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible for the Independent Chinese PEN Center to meet in China, but they still hold an annual conference and award ceremony in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\"Tienchi_PEN-Center-e1369844804757\"<\/a><\/p>\n

June 4th Commemoration demonstration in Hong Kong, 5\/26\/2013. Photo: courtesy of Tienchi Martin-Liao.
\nTen of our Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) members did not make it to the conference we recently held on May 25 in Hong Kong. The police warned our members that they shouldn\u2019t make the trip, but not all of them obeyed. Some were held back at the airport, some on the border in Shenzhen. The same thing happened to the three speakers we invited, and none of them were present at the panel. Yet, in the conference room at Hong Kong City University, we still had around 20 colleagues from mainland China, each with a story to tell about how they made it to the free harbor. It is my pleasure to share some of their stories with you.<\/p>\n

Lin is an editor from Hunan, but he is also the founder of an NGO which promotes \u201che-culture.\u201d The Chinese word he means harmony, unification, republic etc. While that concept might seem loose, \u201cOne has to be ambiguous to survive in China,\u201d Lin has said. Recently his organization helped 100 families in Changsha who have lost their only child\u2014victims of the one-child policy. Volunteers gave a package of daily necessities valuing 500 RMB ($70) to each of the heart-broken parents. Lin\u2019s supervisor gave him permission to attend the Hong Kong conference under the following conditions: Keep your mouth shut, participate in no other activities, and meet no reporters.<\/p>\n

Another attendee, Yi, is a writer and English teacher in Henan province\u2014or, I should say, he used to be. Since the social criticism that he writes doesn\u2019t please the school\u2019s authorities, he has been fired as a teacher and assigned a new duty: Water delivery boy. Now he has to boil water and deliver hot tea to the school\u2019s staff. But Yi has a philosophical attitude towards his new \u201cmission.\u201d Smiling, he says, \u201cI can serve the people even better if I operate from the working class.\u201d To make a living, Yi cultivates a small piece of land and plants grains. He also founded an NGO for environmental protection. \u201cPolluted water and poisoned food\u2014people need to know why they become ill and die early,\u201d Yi said, no longer smiling.<\/p>\n

The ICPC gives three awards annually, mainly to outspoken authors who write in Chinese. Since it\u2019s been impossible for the organization to hold any meetings inside China over the past 10 years, none of the awardees (nor their representatives) have been allowed to attend the award ceremony in Hong Kong, with only one exception in 2011. Instead, empty chairs with the writers\u2019 portraits on them are set up on stage. The hope that the new Party leader Xi Jinpin and Premier Li Keqiang would be more tolerant to dissenters has turned out to be wishful thinking.
\nFor detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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