GLOBALE: Writers for Freedom
A man signs a book
The Global Fight for Freedom of Speech
Wed, August 12, 2015 8 pm CEST, Reading

Liao Yiwu reads for Li Bifeng

To kick-off the series of »Writers for Freedom« events, Chinese author and musician Liao Yiwu will be a guest at the ZKM. As a result of the violent suppression of the protests on June 4, 1989, he penned the poem »Massacre«, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison. As a reading partner, Liao Yiwu is raising his voice for his friend and former fellow inmate, Li Bifeng, who was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment in 2012, and will discuss the situation of writers in China with Gerwig Epkes, the presenter of the SWR2 »LiteraturEN« program. The actor Frank Stöckle will read selected texts from both authors in a German translation.

The independent PEN Centre in China honoured Liao Yiwu with the »Freedom to Write« prize in 2007, the awarding of which he was prevented from attending. He became internationally known in 2009 with his book »The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China from the Bottom Up«. In the summer of 2011, Liao Yiwu managed to flee to Germany. He has lived in Berlin ever since.
 
The author has been awarded many prizes. Among others, he received the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis in 2011 and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2012. In 2012, he published »Die Kugel und das Opium« [Bullets and Opium], with »Die Dongdong-Tänzerin und der Sichuan-Koch« [The Dongdong Dancer and the Sichuan Chef] following in 2013. His works are banned in China.

Further Events

  • Nov 4, 2015: Enoh Meyomesse (Cameroons) in conversation with Hans Thill (PEN)
  • Jan 27. 2016: Jan Wagner raises his voice for Mohammed al-Ajami (Qatar)
  • ​further events follow
– Subject to change –
Credits
Organization / Institution
ZKM | Karlsruhe

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