MCLC: London Book Fair criticized (8-14)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bill Goldman (billgoldman at mac.com)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (8)
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To think that Dickens cannot teach us about contemporary London is not to
know how to read - or rather, perhaps, to read everything solely and
narrowly from the point of view of a sociologist.

As for Tiananmen Square 1989: the Chinese government still refuses any
kind of independent inquiry and does not allow any public reference to the
slaughter perpetrated in Beijing on the orders of Deng Xiao Ping, whose
successors they are and whose "heroic" image they promote (I know: I was
in China).

It is they who are living in the past, but they will not be able to
conceal their crimes from the Chinese people (including the families of
those who were shot in the back by Chinese troops in the streets)
indefinitely, partly thanks to brave souls such as Ma Jian, who rightly
will not let the matter rest.

To dismiss this concern for justice and truth as "living in the past" is
to show contempt for those bereaved and silenced by the state, those
forced to choose between exile and a Chinese gaol (or worse).

Once truths are acknowledged they do not need to be obsessed over: until
then, we should do whatever we can to hold the powers-that-be to them.

Bill

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From: terrence russell (trussell510 at gmail.com)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (9)

If it were that case that intellectuals, democracy advocates, Falun Gong
followers, activist lawyers, petitioners, Tibetans, Uyghurs, etc., were no
longer receiving the kind of treatment Bei Ling describes, then perhaps it
would be time to move on. Unfortunately, evidence (much of it available on
this list) overwhelmingly suggests that for those who take issue with
Beijing's policies, not much has changed.

Terry

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From: scott savitt (scottsavitt at gmail.com)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (10)

Michele states that bei ling "obviously... hates beijing," his beloved
hometown that he writes about so fondly and where the rest of his family
still lives. i learned about beijing through the friendship and generosity
of writers like xi chuan, bei ling, ma jian, ai weiwei, all (except xi
chuan) who have paid dearly for their words. i think this tells us a lot
about the nature of the regime. bei ling was first targeted for his
writing as a teenager during the democracy wall movement. he was finally
jailed in late 2000 and has tried several times to visit his aging parents
since. so the atmosphere for writers in beijing has transformed from
victorian england to tony blair's england since then? and tiananmen is
irrelevant, even though mere mention of it sends the powers-that-be into
paroxysms, and the premier's recent work report cited the risk of the
excesses of the cultural revolution returning before a prominent politburo
member was summarily purged. but by mentioning this i'm obviously "fixated
on truths that once were but never will be again."

Scott

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From: angelika bursteiner (aburgsteiner at yahoo.com)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (11)

The report from prison dates back to the year 2000, Bei Lings last time in
China, and has nothing to do with Tiananmen. But even if, is a so called
truth getting less true if it is 23 or 73 years ago?

I cannot understand the suggestion not to listen to exiles, but I assume
Michele meant not exclusively listen to exiles, which is right of course
if one is interested in the reality of life inside a country.
 

Angelika

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From: paul mooney (pjmooney at me.com)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (12)

Michelle, Do you really believe China today is like Tony Blair's England?
I've been reporting on China in China for 17 years. I reported on 1989.
This is the worst things have been here since 1949. I didn't check the
date of Bei Ling's detention and beatings but this is happening today.
It's exactly what's happening today. I wrote a piece last year on the
detentions and tortures of Chinese lawyers that included a list of some 16
people who were kidnapped on the streets and treated as harshly as Bei
Ling. I'm sure you're aware of this? If you've not heard about such things
i suggest you google Gao Zhisheng, Chen Guangcheng, Teng Biao, Li
Tiantian, Yu Jie, the list goes on. All were brutally tortured LAST YEAR.

Paul Mooney

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From: martin winter (dujuan99 at gmail.com)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (13)

China is like europe. albania, belarus and finland, all in one, and
everything together in beijing. no wonder beijing looks like the newest
kasachstan capital nowadays. great changes, indeed. yes, beijing
intellectuals can be very critical of their city. just like ai weiwei
with his piece from last august or september. just like any artist when
he or she confronts the uncomfortable past and present, be it in rome,
berlin, london, vienna or beijing, to name just a few. bei ling is not
very critical of beijing at all, actually. i lived in beijing for 10
years, spent most of the last 25 years in china and taiwan. when i read
ai weiwei's beijing condemnation i did think i had experienced this city
in very different ways. but still, it's a great text, and rings true.

Martin

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From: Jeff Kinkley (jkinkley at verizon.net)
Subject: London Book Fair criticized (14)

I have nothing good to say about the Beijing government's interventions in
the arts and citizen rights, or about most segments of the book industry
for that matter, but I once had a close encounter with Bei Ling. About
1987-88, when Beijing and New York City were sister cities, there was an
exchange between New York and Beijing artists and poets called Beijing/New
York, New York/Beijing, with much of the work done on the American side by
Stephen Lane and Ginny Mackenzie. There were informal aspects of it, such
as poets and painters mailing their works back and forth to each other
across the Pacific, and formal aspects, such as paintings on display at
the Snug Harbor museum on Staten Island (in 1988?) and a poetry reading
session attended by the New York and Beijing poets in New York. The
American side that organized the poetry reading made some seeming faux pas
such as having the American poets go first and the Chinese poets go
second; I can't recall what other aspects of inequality or alleged
inequality may have existed.  I think the American poets may have
apologized at the reading for some aspects of the real or perceived slight
to the feelings of the Chinese people.  Surely the planners' intentions
were good, if not their sensitivity to national feelings.  What amazed me
was the energy behind Bei Ling's self-appointed behind-the-scenes efforts,
already in play prior to the reading, to organize a United Front of all
possible forces to oppose the inequalities of the exchange and the
nonrepresentation of undergound Chinese poetry as he knew it. He
buttonholed me, a mere professor who was in the audience, and he actually
managed to buttonhole some pretty high NYC officials (though not the
mayor) to try to bring the whole enterprise crashing down. How he
approached the Chinese side I don't know. There was talk of a walk-out by
the Chinese side during the poetry reading, but it didn't happen.  I was
not in on anything myself; Bei Ling just hoped to enlist me to shame the
Americans.  My reaction at the time was, Wow, so this is what the Cultural
Revolution was like!  Classic Red Guard organizational skills are on
display! Will Mayor Ed Koch be dragged out and struggled against?
Subsequently I was amazed to see that Bei Ling became, evidently, a _New
York Times_ go-to person for information on dissident and underground
Chinese poetry.

Jeff