![\"57144096\"](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/09\/57144096.jpg\")
<\/a>\nFrederic J. Brown\/AFP\/Getty Images
\nZeng Jinyan, the wife of Chinese activist Hu Jia, in March 2006, Beijing.<\/p>\n
The essay that follows was written by Zeng Jinyan, whose husband, Hu Jia, has been prominently involved in activism around environmental issues, AIDS, and human rights in China over the past decade and a half and is a winner of the European Parliament\u2019s Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. From 2008 to 2011, he served a three and a half year prison sentence for inciting state subversion. Since his release, he has lived under varying degrees of surveillance and house arrest in his apartment in Beijing. He continues to write and is an active presence on Twitter. Zeng and Hu separated in 2012, and Zeng now lives in Hong Kong with their six-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
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Baobao: \u201cFuck!\u201d
\nMe: \u201cWhere\u2019d you learn that word?\u201d
\nBaobao: \u201cDaddy\u2019s good friends said it!\u201d
\nMe: \u201cWhich good friends?\u201d
\nBaobao: \u201cTwo of Daddy\u2019s friends who stay in the same hotel with us, the ones who sleep in the rooms on either side of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was silent for a moment. Okay, I said finally: \u201cNext time Daddy\u2019s friends say that, tell them they shouldn\u2019t say such vulgar things when kids are around.\u201d<\/p>\n
My daughter, who\u2019s almost seven years old, went back to her play.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t tell her that Daddy\u2019s \u201cfriends\u201d are actually plainclothes cops from state security\u2014guobao\u2014sent to keep watch over her father, preventing him from taking her out to see friends. Neither did I tell her that these \u201cfriends\u201d had been part of our lives ever since she was in the womb. It was impossible to explain to her why her mommy and daddy, who loved each other very much, are now separated. In the two years since she and I moved to Hong Kong, spending holidays with her father in various hotels in cities across mainland China has become a routine for her. Daddy\u2019s \u201cfriends\u201d come and go, sometimes dropping in and out, sometimes completely dominating the schedules of these holidays. Her father has no choice; if he didn\u2019t accept their presence, he\u2019d have no way to watch his daughter grow. He couldn\u2019t give her rides on his shoulders, couldn\u2019t keep pace with her as she learns rudimentary English, couldn\u2019t laugh at the funny stories she tells in Cantonese, and couldn\u2019t answer her when she asks: \u201cWhy can\u2019t Daddy get the papers he needs to come to Hong Kong?\u201d At the end of almost every holiday, Daddy\u2019s \u201cfriends\u201d usually disregard the injunction not to get too familiar with her, and hug her, take her picture, give her presents. Some of these she cherishes, like the little stuffed bear she won\u2019t let go of; others her mom has to confiscate: a pair of pink child-sized high-heeled shoes, big bowls of ice cream, huge piles of chocolates.<\/p>\n
For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ZENG JINYAN 09.19.14 Frederic J. Brown\/A … Continue reading