MCLC: Woeser and Ai collaborate on book

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: Woeser and Ai collaborate on book
***********************************************************

Source: The Guardian (10/17/13):
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/17/tibet-self-immolation-book-woe
ser-ai-weiwei

Tibet self-immolations: Tsering Woeser and Ai Weiwei collaborate on book
By Jonathan Kaiman

Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser and dissident artist Ai Weiwei have
collaborated on a book about Tibetan self-immolations, attempting to
explain the suicidal protests that have gripped the Himalayan region since
2009.

The book, Immolations in Tibet: The Shame of the World, is written by
Woeser with cover art by Ai. A French-language first edition
<http://woeser.middle-way.net/2013/10/immolations-in-tibet-shame-of-world.h
tml> was published on Thursday.

"I think [the self-immolations] are an earth-shattering thing," Woeser
said in a telephone interview from Lhasa. "Yet people are silent. Why are
they silent? In China, one reason is that the government blocks
information, they block the truth, so a lot of people don't know that this
is happening. Yet in a lot of places – even in China – people know this is
happening, but don't really care."

She continued: "In this book, I want to write about why people
self-immolate – to help people understand, to break the silence."

Since February 2009, at least 122 Tibetans have set themselves on fire as
a grimin protest and most have died from their wounds. The protesters have
been a diverse group, comprised of men and women, monks and lay people,
elders and teenagers. There are many reasons behind self-immolations, from
the trauma of forced resettlement to surveillance cameras in monasteries.
"Self-immolation is the most hard-hitting thing that these isolated
protesters can do while still respecting principles of non-violence,"
Woeser writes.wrote in the book.

Beijing condemns the protests as terrorism and blames them on "hostile
forces from abroad" – particularly the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India
since 1959.

Woeser, one of the few Tibetan authors to write in Chinese, grew up in
Tibet but now lives under close surveillance in Beijing. Since she moved
to the capital a decade ago, she has posted volumes of poetry and essays
online, many of them openly critical of the Chinese government's regional
policies. In the book, Woeser describes Tibet as a "giant prison
criss-crossed with armed soldiers and armoured vehicles".

After Tibet was racked by riots in 2008, Woeser was placed under house
arrest with her husband Wang Xilong, also a prominent writer and activist.
Authorities once again confined her to her home in 2012, to prevent her
from receiving an award at the Dutch embassy.

Woeser called the book short – about 20,000 words – and said she wrote it
quickly, between April and June of this year. Ai's minimalist cover
depicts the swirling outline of orange-and-yellow flames; its white
background is subtly inlaid with each self-immolator's name, written in
Tibetan.

Woeser said that she considers Ai a friend, and called his views on
Tibetan issues, which she had seen on Twitter, "very pertinent, and very
precise". She asked him to design the cover in late August. "He agreed
immediately," she said. "He said of course, the meaning of these
self-immolations, whether on a philosophical or a religious level, is
beyond what us living people can ordinarily understand. But he said he'd
be willing to try."

Woeser said that while publishing the book may carry risks, she refuses to
be cowed, drawing inspiration from the people she writes about. "Their
courage gives me courage," she said.