A welcome side-effect of the new English PEN website is an increase in inquiries from journalists. There have been a couple of free speech moments in the past couple of weeks – Günter Grass, and China at the London Book Fair – and as such the media have been in touch with us. I was asked to speak on the radio on a couple of occasions.
Discussing Günter Grass on BBC World Have Your Say:
Discussing China at the London Book Fair on Monocle 24:
I also spoke to 2ser Radio in Sydney but haven’t heard the audio yet. (Update: here).
Its excruciating to hear all the “ahs” and “ums” and “you know” and “sort of” that pepper what feels, at the time, like normal fluent speech. The second clip is better than the first, which is because I had longer to prepare.
The audio is hosted on PodOmatic, which I’ve only just discovered. It is free to sign-up and has easy integration with iTunes. I would use AudioBoo but it limits the length of the audio clips to 3 minutes.
Tag: China (Page 3 of 4)
This week English PEN has been at the London Book Fair. China was the ‘Market Focus’ country and as such, there were a lot of Chinese state-run stands at the fair.
I joined with activists from the Tibet Society and the Independent Chinese PEN Centre to stage a poetry protest in front of the Chinese Government stands. The poetry we recited earned their authors a ten year prison sentence.
Later, GAPP officials used a load of pull-up conference banner stands to block the protest from view. “The Great Pull-Up Banner Wall of China”. Not a good look, in a trade fair designed to promote openness.
I was also reprimanded by the security guards for holding up a sign saying ‘Free Speech is not a crime’ on carpet owned (or at least, paid for) by the Chinese government.
Its the London Book Fair this week, and China is the controversial ‘market focus’ country. To mark this, English PEN staged a day-long forum on Chinese literature and invited artists both from inside China and in exile.
One of the visitors was Ou Ning, who introduced his film about forced demolitions in Beijing, ahead of the 2008 Olympics. During the Q&A I asked Ou Ning about remix culture in china, and then followed with a rather loaded question about film vs literature. You can watch the event below or see my particular question on YouTube.
There wasn’t time for me to engage him in a debate, but I’m not sure I agree with Ou Ning’s assertion that film beats literature. Both are important. In the short term, I agree that film and video are superior in showing fellow Chinese people, and the rest of the world, what is actually happening. However, I’m not sure that providing that enhanced knowledge is sufficient to bring about lasting change. I think literature has an essential role in bringing about change, whether that is through an Arab Spring style uprising (a ‘Jasmine’ revolution?) or a kind of Chinese glasnost. A fundamental shift in mindset is required for either kind of reform, and I think the depth and nuance that long form literary work brings is essential to inspiring such a change.
Congratulations to Lui Xiaobo, Chinese dissident, winner in absentia of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. PEN American Centre have asked their members to republish Xiaobo’s voice and writings on their own sites and in their own Twitter feeds, so that he may be heard even though he is incarcerated by the panicked Chinese regime.
Here is Liu Xia (Lui Xiaobo’s wife) and Victoria Redel reading his “Greed’s Prisoner” in Beijing:
Elsehwere, you can hear Lui Xia describe the Chinese authorities confiscating Xiaobo’s papers, and Lui Xiaobo himself discussing free expression (or the lack of it) in China. PEN American Centre has a lot more multimedia on their site. Please disseminate widely.
So, the games have opened. I am all for having a global party, and for the Olympics to be seen a symbol of peace and shared humanity, &ct &ct… But surely these media claims that four billion people watched the ceremony is stinking hyperbole. That’s pretty much two in every three people. What with it being a working day in many parts of the world, what with legions of other people being asleep, and millions more without access to a TV, I don’t think it would be possible – even if every person in China was watching.