Speaker(s): Professor Perry Link
Recorded on 22 November 2012 in Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.
In this lecture, Professor Perry Link will discuss the thinking of Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, and the prospects for political change in China. Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his long struggle on behalf of democracy in China while serving an 11-year prison sentence for "incitement to subvert state power". His main crime was to draft "Charter 08", a petition calling for an end to Communist Party rule, that was signed by a large number of Chinese intellectuals.
Perry Link, emeritus professor of East Asian studies at Princeton University who now teaches at the University of California at Riverside, is a leading expert on Chinese literature, has made Liu's nonviolent philosophy accessible to a foreign audience by compiling and editing a collection of his essays and poems. Published by Harvard University Press, with an introduction by Vaclav Havel, under the title No Enemies, No Hatred, the book has been described as an aid to reflection for Western readers who might take for granted the values Liu has dedicated his life to achieving for his homeland. In 2011 it was named Wall Street Journal book of the year. If Liu serves his full sentence, he will not be freed until 2020.
