Liu Xiaobo was a blessed Chinese critic, human rights activist, professor and Nobel laureate known for his fight against China’s one-party rule and his campaign for democratic reforms in the country’s political system.
The freedom fighter and human rights activist championed “change” and wanted it to be done as peacefully as possible to support Mahatma Gandhi’s revolutionary style of civil disobedience.
Liu died a hero not only in China but around the world. He would forever be remembered as a principled champion who fought with his blood to make China a better place to defend and uphold.
Liu Xiaobo’s biography
Liu Xiaobo was born on December 28, 1955 in Changchun, a northeastern Chinese province bordering North Korea and Russia, to Liu Ling (father) and Zhang Suqin (mother).
His father (born in 1931 in Huaide County, Jilin) was a professor of Chinese at Northeast Normal University and a Communist Party loyalist, while his mother spent a stint at Northeast Normal University Nursery School.
Liu and his brothers were unfazed by their father’s shocking death as they attained greater heights in China in their respective fields of interest.
His eldest brother Liu Xiaoguang, now retired, was a retired Dalian import and export apparel company manager. Liu Xiaohui, Xiaobo’s second brother, studied history at Northeast Normal University and now works as the deputy director of Jilin Province Museum.
His immediate younger brother, Liu Xiaoxuan (born is Professor of Energy and Materials at Guangdong University of Technology, while his youngest brother Liu Xiaodong died of heart disease in the early 1990s.
Education
Liu Xiaobo began his teaching career in 1977 when he was admitted to study Chinese literature at Jilin University. He graduated in 1982 with a BA in Literature.
The freedom fighter later made it to Beijing Normal University, where he was accepted as a research student in the Chinese literature department. After completing his studies, he received an MA in literature and was then employed as a lecturer.
Liu enrolled for his doctoral studies in 1986 and published his literary reviews in various magazines. Because of his radical views and criticism, he has been dubbed the dark horse, the “Liu Xiaobo Shock” or the “Liu Xiaobo Phenomenon” by Chinese intellectuals.
His doctoral program was completed in June 1988 and he later worked as a lecturer at the same university. He later became a visiting scholar at various universities, including Columbia University, the University of Oslo, and the University of Hawaii.
Liu’s love of literature dates back to his days at Jilin University, where he met some of his schoolmates who were also good at literature. He ended up forming a poetry group with six of them called The Innocent Hearts (Chi Zi Xin).
He wrote his first book, Critique of Choice: Dialogues with Li Zehou, in 1987. His doctoral thesis, Aesthetic and Human Freedom , was published as his second book, while his third book, The Fog of Metaphysics, a comprehensive survey of Western philosophies, became released in 1989.
He left to publish two more books – The Future of Free China Exists in Civil Society and – in January 2005 in the United States. This came after the death of former Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang, who had shown sympathy for the student demonstrations in 1989.
His family
Liu Xiaobo married twice. His first marriage was to Tao Li in 1984. He welcomed a son named Liu Tao with Li in 1985 and divorced after a few years. Tao and his son are said to have immigrated to the United States after the split.
The famous freedom fighter later married Liu Xia in 1996 while he was still imprisoned in the labor camp. His union with Xia did not produce a child until his death.
Liu’s second wife, Xia, was placed under house arrest a few weeks before his death. She was the only one allowed to visit him in prison.
arrest, imprisonment
Lifelong brilliant Chinese writer and critic Liu Xiaobo devoted his talent to the struggle for democracy and human rights, although China is known for its non-democratic and conservative leadership style.
In his youth, Liu acted as an advocate for democracy and human rights in China. He also took part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, which left many dead.
Despite arriving late at the site of the protests, he saved the lives of many students by helping them leave the square. After the protest, most of his works were banned.
In 2009, Liu was jailed for his pro-democracy Charter 08 manifesto, although this was not the first time he had been jailed by the Chinese government.
Human rights activist Xiaobo was arrested and imprisoned for the first time in 1989 and released in 1991. In 1995-96 he was imprisoned for a second time for taking part in a democracy and human rights movement. From 1996 to 1999 he was charged with “disturbing social order” and imprisoned.
The last time was on June 23, 2009. He was arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”. He was tried six months later and sentenced to eleven years in prison.
death and burial
Chinese literary icon Liu Xiaobo died at Shenyang’s First Hospital of Chinese Medical University on July 13, 2017 after losing his battle with liver cancer.
Liu’s health challenge first made headlines on June 26, 2017, when he was awarded medical parole after being diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer in late May 2017.
Later it became known that the Chinese icon was in the late stage of liver cancer. a condition the government is accused of neglecting his medical needs while in detention.
He was denied access to travel abroad for medical treatment and later died of multiple organ failure. His death was recognized by world leaders and international human rights organizations, making him even more famous than when he was alive. .
His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered at sea in the early morning of July 15, 2017. Liu’s funeral was attended by his widow, brother-in-law, two brothers and their wives.
Awards and Honors
In absentia, Liu Xiaobo was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. This made him the third person to receive the Peace Prize while in prison.
He was also the second winner to be denied the right to be represented at the awards and the second to die in custody. Liu was the first Chinese national to receive a Nobel Prize while in China.
In 2004 he was awarded the Foundation de France prize by Reporters Without Borders as a champion of press freedom.
Liu Xiaobo may have died physically, but his legacies remain evergreen in China and beyond. Given the international reaction to his death, there is speculation that his legacy may be stronger than his lifelong struggle for democracy in China.
Brief facts about Liu Xiaobo
- He was the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in state custody since May 4, 1935, when German Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carl von Ossietzky died of tuberculosis in police custody in a hospital in Berlin-Pankow.
- Liu reportedly excommunicated his eldest brother, Liu Xiaoguan, after the June 4 protest, calling him a “petty bureaucrat of the Communist Party”.
- Xiaobo has sometimes been referred to as China’s Nelson Mandela.
- The burial at sea of his remains was not fully welcomed, particularly by his supporters, who accused the government of trying to erase his legacy.