1 January 2011

ICPC Statement on the Passing of Mr. Zhang Jianhong


Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) mournfully announces that its beloved member Mr. ZHANG Jianhong passed away at a hospital in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province in east China, yesterday on New Year Eve. Mr. Zhang, also a Honorary Member of Melbourne PEN and PEN America centers, was a freelance writer better known by his penname Li Hong and a former prisoner of conscience who had been released on medical parole on 5 June 2010 after having served 3 years and 9 months imprisonment of his original 6-year sentence on the offence of “inciting subversion of state power” for his writings. He had been treated under intensive care in the hospital for a severe disease of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis since his release last June.

Mr. Zhang Jianhong, a prominent poet, playwright, editor and author in Ningbo, was born on 6 March 1958 in Yin County, Zhejiang Province. He started publishing his poems and essays when he was an university student in 1980. In 1985, he joined the Writers Association of Zhejiang Province and became an editor of Wenxue Gang (Literature Harbour) magazine. In 1988, he was appointed the deputy secretary-general of the Writers Association of Ningbo City and the director of its committee for poems, essays and reportages. In 1989, he was imprisoned for the 3-year Re-education through Labour by the Public Security Bureau of Ningbo City on a charge of “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement” for his support of the student-led pro-democratic movements throughout China. As a result, he was expelled from the Writers Association and dismissed from all of his posts. In 1991 he was released with a reduction of one year and half of his sentence. Since then he had become a freelance. His is a prolific author and has published numerous books, including poems, plays, novels and essays. His several TV series have been broadcast on CCTV and also published in DVD.

Mr. Zhang Jianhong was the editor-in-chief of Zhejiang Shaonian Zhuojia Bao (Zhejiang Children Writers News) for a few months before he resigned to found a humanity and literature website Aiqinghai Net (Aegean Sea) as its editor-in-chief in August 2005. The website became very popular among the intellectuals soon but was closed by Zhejiang News and Communication authorities 7 months later on 9th of March 2006. Since then he had written and published his articles at various overseas Chinese websites, including Boxun, Minzhu Luntan, Dajiyuan, Yi Bao, Guancha, Minzhu Zhongguo, etc until he was arrested in September 2006. On 19 March 2007, Mr. Zhang was sentenced to 6 Years imprisonment and 1 year deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of State power”, based only on his online writing and publishing of dissent articles (62 pieces).

In the same month as his appeal was rejected on 15 May 2007, Mr. Zhang Jianhong had been diagnosed to have suffered a rare neurological disorder due to his health declining with muscle atrophy caused by nerve damage during his early detention in early 2007. Since October 2007, he had been held in Zhejiang Provincial Prison General Hospital, Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province. Although being paralyzed and unable to manage his daily life without a personal aid, his applications for medical parole under doctors’ advice had been continuously turned down for no proper reason until his disease was diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis so that he could not breath without a ventilator under intensive care in a hospital. PEN International, of which ICPC is a branch, and other international human rights organizations have been extremely concerned about the case of Mr. Zhang Jianhong, called several times on the Chinese authorities and the international communities for his release and raised grants for his treatments. Although he has been released on medical parole half a year ago, it had been already too later to save his life.

ICPC considers Mr. Zhang Jianhong as a most recent victim of contemporary literary inquisition in China and one of its worst cases over 30 years since China his started its policy of “reform and opening-up” in late 1970s, and believes that the relevant authorities in China hold responsibilities for Zhang’s disease development, delayed medical parole for proper treatment, and finally his premature death. Therefore, ICPC angrily condemns and strongly protests against the Chinese authorities and calls for the investigation on this case. ICPC also calls on the Chinese authorities to take this case as a lesson to deal with all of applications of medical parole submitted by the prisoners, especially ICPC members Shi Tao and Yang Tianshui, and its honorary members Zheng Yichun, Xu Wei, Hu Jia, Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren, and others who have been suffering the severe diseases.

Mr. Zhang Jianhong was a long-standing activist practicing freedom to write in China where there has been lack of the freedoms of speech and of the press. He made outstanding contributions to the creation of contemporary Chinese literature, to the defending of freedom of speech and the promotion of civil society in China. His passing is our irrecoverable loss, but his large number of works devoted to the spirit of freedom to write will become a valuable outcome of Chinese literature and heritage. Defending freedom of expression and promoting free development of Chinese literature are ICPC’s aims. Therefore, to uphold the spirit of PEN is our best way to commemorate Mr. Zhang Jianhong.

ICPC expresses its deepest condolences to the passing of Mr. Zhang Jianhong, and to the mourning of his wife Ms. Dong Min and his family.

Will Mr. Zhang Jianhong rest in peace!

PEN International is the oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. The Independent Chinese PEN Center is among its 145 member centers and aims to protect Chinese writers' freedom of expression and freedom to write worldwide and advocates for the rights of Chinese writers and journalists who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted or harassed.

For more information, contact
Dr. Yu Zhang
Executive Secretary and WiPC Coordinator
Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC)
Tel: +46-8-50022792
Email: secretariat@chinesepen.org, wipc@comhem.se
Websites: http://www.chinesepen.org and http://www.liuxiaobo.eu/.

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Appendix 1. Case Record of Zhang Jianhong
Name ZHANG Jianhong
Pen name Li Hong, Zhang Li
Sex Male
Birth date 1958-03-06
Birth place Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province
Resident place Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province
Education University graduate
Profession Freelance writer, playwright and poet
Membership Member of Independent Chinese PEN Center, Honorary Member of Melbourne and American PEN Centers
Date of arrest 2006-09-06 (detained), 2006-10-12 (arrested)
Organ of arrest Public Security Bureau of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province
Cause of arrest Internet writing and publishing dissent articles (62 pieces)
Charge Inciting subversion of state power
Date of sentence 2007-03-19, 2007-05-15 (appeal)
Organ of sentence Intermediate People's Court of Ningbo City, High People's Court of Zhejiang Province (appeal)
Sentence 6 Years imprisonment and 1 year deprivation of political rights
Defender Lawyer LI Jianqiang
Place of jail Qiaosi Prison; Prison General Hospital, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province (since 2007-10-20)
Situation in jail Heath getting worse since being detained and suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that has made him paralyzed and unable to survive without life support
Date of release 2010-06-05 (medical parole)
Family contact DONG Min (wife), Tel: 0086-574-87885992
References http://69.59.187.18/dlbhdt/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=5062
http://www.guancha.org/info/artshow.asp?ID=40709
http://crd-net.org/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=2249
http://boxun.com/hero/2006/lhongwj/1_1.shtml (Chinese)
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2006/09/19/minzhudang/ (Chinese)


Publications:
1. Red Square (Hong Yifang), novel, Times Literature & Art Publishing House (2006), adopted also for a 32-episode TV series broadcast on CCTV and published in DVD by China International TV Corporation.
2. Selected Poems of Li Hong (Li Hong Shiji Shi Xuan), Times Literature and Art Publishing House (2006)
3. in Dense Grove (Mimi De Xiao Shulin), selected poems, Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House (1982)
4. in Dreams of City (Cheng Zhi Meng), selected poems, Guangdong New Century Press (1986)
5. in Imaginary Subway (Xiangxiang Zhong De Ditie), selected poems, Sichuan Literature & Art Publishing House (1997),
6. in City Quartet (Chengshi Sichongzhou), selected poems, Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House (1988).
7. in Appreciation Dictionary of Chinese Exploration Poetry in 20th Century (20 Shiji Zhongguo Tansuo Shi Xinshang Cidian), Hebei Renmin Publishing House (1999)
8. in Chinese New Poems in 20th Century (20 Shiji Zhongguo Xin Shi Xuan), People Literature and Art Publishing House (2001)

Partial Collection of online publications at http://www.boxun.com/hero/lhongwj/

Honours and Awards:

Honorary Member of Melbourne and American PEN Centers
NED Democracy Award in USA (2008)
Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Grant (2010)



Appendix 2. Translation of Writing Examples

To A Friend and Other Poems

By LI Hong

To A Friend

We drank the same water in Yong River
And became crazy youth on campus, one after another.
We will meet as firmly as a rock standing in wind and rain
Despite nowhere to seek each other after overcoming disaster!

2005-08


The Fall Time

This fall time is longer than expected in recollection
But shorter than a drop of rain.

By old house a calabash from last year is hanging from a stand of cane,
And has always kept silent to the stories in reality or fiction.

Into the sliver of a stone wall, seeping in with the water of rain
There is also a small lizard in green.
It is standing on my keyboard, and its protruding eyes are rotating,
Appearing to hint that I should go out for something.

As my whole hometown under a lazy Fall sun has been falling,
I cast aside the book in my hand, and start packing.

2005-10


Mother Earth

One must get strength from mother earth! Bend down
And put the cheek close to the ground, at the same point as the insects, fallen leaves and dried grasses.

Feel the breath of soil,
And listen to the whizzing from the deep earth, which indicates the spring swiftly and violently approaching.

Due to sunlight, the eyes that have long been shut indoors are flowing tears;
Due to the mountain wind after morning fog, the sad vegetation becomes joyful!

A maritime area is cut open from a slit in rock,
And her sky blue and vastness are just the nature of Mother Earth.

A kind of voice walked out of the mainland -
Whitman, Neruda and my friends have already started singing!

Mother Earth! No one can betray her,
Nor even strangle the fact that Mother Earth is rejuvenating.

One who gets strength from Mother Earth is the one to whom God grants happiness.
An ant has climbed up the bridge of my nose, gently yelling: Mother Earth!

2006-04


Who Weeps for You, Aegean Sea

In my hands, Aegean Sea, the huge sky, blue like myth,
Is suddenly stifled. Who are weeping?
The beautiful princess in Phoenicia, your Zeus,
Your Crete, and your goddess of love Aphrodite.

Aegean Sea, sliding from my hands,
Has stopped breathing. A drop of blood has flowed
From ancient Greece to the Spring of 2006. Who are weeping?
Your children who spread in another corner of the world,
The people who cannot fall asleep at night, and every
Noble soul who yearns for freedom.

I remembered that night, when crossing the Greek Peninsula and
Asia Minor, with Europe’s fragrance, you, Aegean Sea,
Arrived in my dream.
At that moment, even sleep-talk became distinct:
Stealing the Western fire, to boil the Eastern tripod.
Even the palpitation was not so timid as it had been in the past.
The lies and truth, the evil and justice, the dark and light
Have gradually become clear under your blue waves.

Who are weeping? Just this afternoon
The singing of Aegean Sea was cut at your throat.
On the screen
Between my powerless fingers
Your pale body, losing blood, fell down like a marble statue.
From the dreaming blue sky the blood dripped at once.
Oh, Aegean Sea, with a bow and arrows on your shoulder and a pair of wings on your back,
Who are weeping?

A drop of blood has flowed from ancient Greece to the Spring of 2006.
The cold wave came as a surprise, raining and snowing simultaneously.
Innumerable times, I have started your domain name, Aegean Sea
But your beautiful looks cannot be searched anywhere.
In the Spring, when being silenced and when hesitating to go,
Aegean Sea, who are still weeping for you?

2006-03-13. Before dawn.


The Imperial Nightmare under Tank Tracks
- The 17th Anniversary of June Fourth in China

17 years ago, a summer night.

The tank tracks were the lines of a steel torrent
Running over the remains of Hu Yaobang
And over the heart of Zhao Ziyang,
Rolling over the chests of Beijing residents
And over a pair of twitching slender arms, a Tsinghua girl...

The tanks came around! From Muxidi
They thundered and advanced toward the Square:
Where their tracks passed over,
There was left the longest brooding road in human memory.

The engines were roaring! The tracks were clanging!
This night, the Flowers of Evil growing from the bloody Wall of the Paris Commune were in full bloom at last.
Why had a spectre,
Which the world had seen to be wicked,
Gone from bleeding, to cruellest bloodshed?

For 150 years, what price mankind has paid!
From Auschwitz to the Gulag
From Prague Spring to the decade-long catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution,
This night, the play of the "Communist Manifesto"
Staged a final madness at last!

The engines were roaring! The tracks were clanging!
Starting from Poland, the Berlin Wall and the Eastern Bloc,
Collapsing in the noises of the tanks, this night,
Together with the red walls of the Kremlin
The bloody banner of Soviet empire in the rumbling echoes,
Had no choice but to drop...

But in the scene of massacre, after the army marched away
Business went on as usual.
Kill two hundred thousand to be stable for 2 decades, said an old voice.
After me, the deluge! Said another voice, trembling.

It was a night of complete suicide -
Lies committed suicide before the truth
The People’s Army committed suicide before their folks
The rulers committed suicide before the trial of legitimacy
A fake Republic committed suicide.

When the tanks rolled, the one who had not committed suicide was Taiwan:
Wiping off the blood and dusting off the past
In 1996 Taiwan launched universal suffrage.
A most powerful vote
Had been cast in the Square that night.

The other side of the Strait has fallen into the boundless fear
The deceased have been freed from fear
The surviving have seen through the fear
Only an executioner, in his life
Cannot ever escape the nightmare of fear
In fact, the most deadly is the fear of fear
Which is the fate that God arranged for him.

On 4th of June 1989, I died
But survived behind bars after the smoke was gone -
As a witness
I have yet to present my testimony to the Final Judgment
As a poet, after the end of the imperial nightmare,
I would like to write for a lifetime
A poem about compassion and affection!

2006.5.28. Ningbo

Translator’s note: this poem was listed among 8 pieces of author’s writings as criminal evidences against him in the court verdict that sentenced him to six years imprisonment on ”inciting subversion of the State power”.

(Translated by Yu ZHANG)


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Random Thoughts on Poetry
By LI Hong

1．Great Poets
The old saying "Poetic art is beyond poetry" still makes sense today. A poet can fly at will in his inner world. However, so as to fly much freer, he has to face the reality very often.

In my opinion, those poets who can go through “the inner world and reality” in a brave and graceful way are great poets, such as Czesław Miłosz.

2. Quality of Poetry
As we are at “Poetic Time Waves” magazine, we have to discuss poetry itself, about the spiritual and artistic qualities of poetry itself.

Poetry Forum is not a grocery store, not Hyde Park in London, and certainly not a literary draining channel for people to discharge. Since the abolition of imperial examination system, poetry is no longer a step for climbing up the social ladder; it does not bring fame to your life any more; it cannot make the emperors or leaders listen to you; it will not assist you to the mastery of swords to keep the world in peace. Poetry is just poetry itself, which has come back to its own self long before. However, poetry can sometime just be a waste of time to you and me, merely a pleasure to entertain ourselves before the computer.

If you are lofty in spirits and outstanding in strategies, you can write anything you like, such as essays, diaries, thesis, proposals, speeches, defending speeches, prayer speeches and even criticizing posters. However, if you claim you are writing poems, someone may try to put them against poetic standards to find faults out of them. It is not strange at all.

For months after coming up to this Forum, I have a deep feeling that there is an absence of poetry criticism in us (I mean the real criticism, not a phenomenon unique to this Forum) and the abnormality of the criticizing atmosphere as well.

It is easier to spoil a poet but hard to nourish one! Blind praises sometime can only direct a poet to a wrong track even further; and at the same time, wake-up comments, on the contrary, seem out-of-date and even bring hatred.

When improvisational works attract an expanse of praise, first of all, the poet himself must have basic vigilance and self-knowledge; and at the meantime, we, as true friends, must be cautious (as the stuff put on the Forum is huge, we may not have enough time to have a careful reading. As a consequence, it would be an easy way to follow with praises).

It is the same case to some of my writings. As they were written twenty years ago, I always look forward to solid and in-depth criticisms, even a total negation. I am always expecting such sincere criticisms.

Sometimes blind praises are more doubtable and even dreadful than condemnations. Condemning or praising, who can escape by sheer luck?

The absence of criticism may often make us lose direction, and so does it do to the poetry of an era, a poetry forum and even a poet. As a staff of the online forum, I fully understand and cherish your good intentions. However, when a phenomenon or a certain atmosphere is pervasive but no conscious comments are heard, that would be a discouragement to some real poets.

3. Adoration to poetry
At present, there is not so much which is adorable to us Chinese people. We only adore Buddha, Jesus Christ, music, motherland, mother, love and our undiscardable poor poetry.

Talking about adoration reminds me of a scene in my childhood (several years after the start of the Great Cultural Revolution). The mother of one of my classmates, once a daughter of the owner of the biggest silk factory in Hangzhou City and a graduate of parochial girls’ school, felt pity that her son had nothing to read and brought out two old books with trepidation from her old suitcase. One book was Eugene Onegin, and the other was Selected Poems by Heine. That classmate and I spent several weeks copying these two books. In those days, piety and adoration, brought about by ignorance and fear and never wiped out for the whole life, were engraved in depth of the hearts of two adolescents.

For adoration, there should be at first an existence of a sacred pure land in the inner world. Jia Baoyu talked to his servant: “the word ‘girl’ is extremely noble and extremely pure. You are not allowed to utter this word with your stinky mouths and tongues. However, if you have to mention it, you must rinse your mouths first with clean water or fragrant tea.” What we adore can be different, but we have to admit that this kind of psychological characteristic of adoration is absent in Chinese people.

Adoration is not obedience to reality, but conviction to Gods; it is not a bow to merits and benefits, but an upward quest with no purpose to seek. Jia Baoyu considered girls as water, saying “Girls are bones and flesh made of water while men are bones and flesh made of mud. I feel clean and clear at sight of girls, but stinky at sight of men.” We should not sneer at such remarks. I know this is the best interpretation to adoration. Fear makes people stinky from the core, while adoration makes people clear and clean. It is not strange that masters of modern poetry are correct for this insight. Only with adoration, do mysterious and divine reflections come; and only with adoration, do people get closer to the essence of beauty.

Whenever I face a sheet of paper or a computer to write, this kind of experience of learning poetry always sends me a feeling of walking on a thin ice, and a sense of fear to the gods. I am simply fearful of polluting the pure skirts of poetry due to my carelessness and flightiness. This is why I did not publish any poems in the past ten years, especially after 1980s. I do not mean that I stopped writing. I mean that, with a sense of loss and guilt after great changes, I dare not approach her to beg for her forgiveness.

It’s a shame to be a poet after Auschwitz. What about after 1989 Tian’an Men Square? I could not think further about it. Not until last year when I sorted out Pathetique Four Chapters, I felt like digging a small hole from far under where I was buried deep. I was relieved a little bit and gathered guts to put it up on several forums.

It sounds I am defending myself for my own cowardice, self-contempt, incapability and laziness. Maybe it is the truth.

In a world where Nietzsche declared "God is dead", Foucault talked about "the death of man", Bart discovered “the author is dead” and eventually Lyotard revealed the truth of “inhuman” “capital punishment”, we, of the modern generation, have to run down a hopeless track of nihility and frenzy even further.

No matter it is adoration or affection, it is ultimately just a sigh uttered when a person is in the far depth of uncertainty and inability. You can totally ignore it.

Original texts in Chinese can be found at http://boxun.com/hero/2006/lhongwj/68_1.shtml
(Translated by Chen Biao)