MCLC: Li Bifeng jailed for 12 years (3)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: martin winter (dujuan99 at gmail.com)
Subject: Li Bifeng jailed for 12 years (3)
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I just read a story by Li Bifeng. Very short and poignant. It's called
李必丰：一段狱中记录, accessible on the website
<http://libifeng2012.wordpress.com/>.

This website, organized by Liao Yiwu and friends, also has a list of people
calling for Li Bifeng's release: http://libifeng2012.wordpress.com/list/
You can add your name by sending an email to libifeng2012 at gmail.com with
your name, location, profession or similar data.

The list was started in late April, I remember it from early May. Göran
Malmqvist is one of the first people who signed it.

Nowadays, Liao Yiwu is very much against Göran Malmqvist and the current
literature Nobel winner. I respect Liao very much, he is a great author. He
has had several releases lately. I have begun to read Bullets and Opium.
Earlier this year I helped translate texts of his for a CD/DVD:
http://www.fly-fast-records.com/327.html It has the original recording of
Massacre and lots of other material in Chinese, English and German.

I am very much of two minds about the Nobel award for Mo Yan. Tried to
write
about it on my blog, in three installments, the last one is here:

http://erguotou.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/%e8%8e%ab%e8%a8%80%e5%be%97%e8%ab%
be%e8%ac%9b%e8%b5%b7/

I like Mo Yan's novels, for instance Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, it
has a style I recognize, also in the German translation. I remember when I
was working for Chinese government magazines in Beijing, China Today would
sometimes bring reviews of Chinese books in translation, so I asked them if
they'd be interested in a review of The Republic of Wine, which had just
come out in German. They said yes. Don't remember what I wrote. Probably
mentioned Lu Xun, crime fiction, corruption in the countryside etc. Nothing
that wasn't in the book. But they said they couldn't bring it after all.
Didn't even suggest any changes.

I like the style, the rhythm of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, and I
also like the section from Frogs available online from Granta. When I read
Mo Yan's books, I don't think about the recent controversy at all. But I do
welcome the controversy, I am very glad about the debate. Like everybody
coming from China who received a Nobel prize in the last 20 years - Dalai
Lama, Gao Xingjian, Liu Xiaobo -, Mo Yan generates controversy, which
brings
attention to the conditions of writing and speaking your mind, and to the
one-party society and its limitations in general. Yaxue Cao's long blog
post
Mo Yan, According to You has many interesting points and links. Maybe it
was
posted here on the list back at the end of October. Cao does talk about
reading impressions, but in the end everything else becomes more important.
For me, there is no great difference between reading Mo Yan and Liao Yiwu.
They are different, but that's not the point. Anyway, if you feel like it,
please sign the list for Li Bifeng, because he gets less attention than Liu
Xiaobo.

Martin