06 Mar 12 | China
Woeser, a Tibetan writer who has authored online articles and non-fiction books about her birthplace, has been prevented from attending a ceremony in which the Dutch Ambassador in China was to present her with an award from the Prince Claus Fund.
The writer was prevented by police from leaving her house in Beijing to accept the award at the Dutch Embassy last Thursday.
Woeser wrote Notes on Tibet in 2003 and has been widely published in Taiwan. It is rare for Tibetan writers (she is three-quarters Tibetan) to write in Mandarin Chinese, Woeser maintained two blogs within China before they were shut down in 2007. Woeser now maintains a blog outside of China, which is also sometimes hacked.
She blogged about the prize, reposting a statement released by the Dutch embassy:
Woeser is honoured for her courage in speaking for those who are silenced and oppressed, for her compelling combination of literary quality and political reportage, for recording, articulating and supporting Tibetan culture, and for her active commitment to self-determination, freedom and development in Tibet.
It is a politically sensitive time for the Tibetan writer — who cannot travel abroad without permission. The Chinese capital is in the midst of its annual National Legislative Sessions and March also marks the fourth anniversary of the Tibet uprisings.
Immolations in Tibet have escalated recently, the Western media have reported around 25 Tibetans self-immolating since last March, 18 of whom are believed to have died.
22 Jan 12 | Asia and Pacific, China
Zhu Yufu, a poet and activist, was last week charged with crimes relating to subversion for writing and publishing a poem online. The poem, It’s Time, has been translated by A.E. Clark:
It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
The Square belongs to everyone.
With your own two feet
It’s time to head to the Square and make your choice.
It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
A song belongs to everyone.
From your own throat
It’s time to voice the song in your heart.
It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
China belongs to everyone.
Of your own will
It’s time to choose what China shall be.
Zhu is not new to activism, he was involved in the Democracy Wall movement in 1979. He was formally arrested last April for publishing the poem online, as China began a fierce clampdown on dissent.
A number of artists and writers have been imprisoned in recent weeks for word crimes. Activists Chen Xi and Chen Wei, and writer Li Tie, now face sentences of between nine to 10 years.
Chen Wei was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for inciting subversion, while Chen Xi and Li Tie face 10 years in jail for subversion, a more serious charge. Joshua Rosenzweig, Research Manager at the Duihua Foundation, an organisation seeking clemency and improved treatment for at-risk detainees, notes that, “as far as the law is concerned, ‘subversion’ and ‘inciting subversion’ are not synonymous or interchangeable. The difference has important ramifications.”
Quoting China’s Criminal Law, Article 105, Rosenzweig writes that subversion refers to the following:
Among those who organize, plot or carry out acts to subvert the state power or overthrow the socialist system, the ringleaders and the others who commit major crimes shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years;
The latter, “inciting subversion” is defined as:
Whoever incites others by spreading rumors or slanders or any other means to subvert state power or overthrow the socialist system shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights; and the ringleaders and the others who commit major crimes shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years.
There can be no doubt that China is displaying less tolerance for words of dissent. Zhu Yufu’s sentence is likely to be lengthy.
18 Aug 11 | Iran, Middle East and North Africa
Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Guidance has this week refused publication of Nezami’s Khosro and Shirin, a love story read by generations as a classic of Persian literature.
Writers and publishers in Iran are well-versed in the language of the censors, but this latest incision has come as a shock to all, with members of the literary community voicing their outrage and concern. One can only guess that it is the beautiful depictions of Shirin’s “embrace” of her husband Khosro that have been deemed unsuitable or even “indecent”, according to the regime’s tapered view.
Thousands of books await the censor’s eye with huge backlogs arising from the number of applications from some 70,000 publishing houses, but also the time that censors devote to assessing existing publications. Omid Nifarjam, himself a translator of books by Nabakov and other non-Iranian writers into the Persian language, provides an excellent insight into the situation.
Perhaps the spoken word is all that can remain untouched, delivered clandestinely by the brave. In this clip, prolific contemporary poet Hila Sedighi recites a poem of protest against the atrocities of the Islamic republic (begins at 0:41 seconds). She refers to Rustam and Siavosh, heroes in classical epic poetry, and declares, “of a country of philosophy and poems and piety, we’re left with ignorance and anger and denial”.
14 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Twenty-year-old student, Ayat al-Gormezi, who recited poems critical of Bahrain’s rulers at a Shia-led protest in Pearl Square has been sentenced to a year in prison. In the lead up to her trial she claimed that she was beaten in prison and she has now been convicted of charges which include inciting hatred. One verse of the poem, addressed directly to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, read: “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. Don’t you hear their cries?” According to her mother, Sada al-Qurmezi, an appeal is planned.
