Hardback: In the world as we know it, are there things that are difficult, as well as things that are easy? Through action, those things that seem difficult become easy; with inaction, things that are easy become difficult. - Peng Duanshu (1699-1799), from On Studying.
One who is shut indoors may come to know the world; one who cannot look out the window may understand the Way of Heaven. - Laozi (fifth century BCE), from the Dao De Jing.
It was like a scene out of a thriller: one morning in April 2012, China's most famous political activist - a blind, self-taught lawyer - climbed over the wall of his heavily guarded home and escaped.
For days, his whereabouts remained unknown; after he turned up at the American embassy in Beijing, a furious round of high-level negotiations finally led to his release and a new life in the United States.
Chen Guangcheng is a unique figure on the world stage, but his story is even more remarkable than we knew. The son of a poor farmer in rural China, blinded by illness when he was an infant, Chen was fortunate to survive a difficult childhood. But despite his disability, he was determined to educate himself and fight for the rights of his country's poor, especially a legion of women who had endured forced sterilization under the hated 'one child' policy. Repeatedly harassed, beaten, and imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Chen was ultimately placed under house arrest. After a year of fruitless protest and increasing danger, he evaded his captors and fled to freedom.
Both a riveting memoir and a revealing portrait of modern China, this passionate book, The Barefoot Lawyer (2015), tells the story of a man who has never accepted limits and always believed in the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle.
"Never give up. Never give up the yearning to find goodness in us all or the belief in the strength of the rule of law. Never give up the search for truth and the eternal quest for justice," said Chen Guangcheng when he was led away to serve his sham of a sentence at the Linyi Intermediate People's Court.
About the author: Chen Guangcheng is a Chinese civil rights activist now living in the Washington DC area with his wife and children. In 2007, he was named one of Time magazine's 'Time 100', a list of '100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world'. He is also a laureate of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, bestowed for 'his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law'. He continues to be active in human rights, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Catholic University of America, a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, and Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment