Liao Yiwu

Liao Yiwu is a courageous writer. Shortly after the massacre on Tiananmen Square in 1989, he wrote a poem about it and made a film. This earned him a four-year jail term. After his release, he continued to write despite a multitude of threats.

On Monday, Liao is being awarded the Geschwister Scholl Prize by the German Booktrade Organization and the Munich Department of Arts and Culture for his book "For a Song and a Hundred Songs: An eye-witness report about life in Chinese prisons."

He says he is almost ashamed to have been awarded this prize, which is worth 10,000 euros. "It was named for the Scholl siblings - German national heros who are famous everywhere. They lost their lives in their fight against fascism. I am still alive at least."

Sophie and Hans Scholl belonged to the White Rose resistance group at Munich University. They were sentenced to death and executed in 1943.

In 2009, Liao Yiwu won international acclaim with a book about people on the lowest rungs of society entitled "The Corpse Walker: China from the bottom up." However, he was only able to publish the book for which he has been awarded the prize after escaping to Germany in July. The Chinese authorities repeatedly warned him against publishing his memoirs of his time in jail, in which he describes the humiliations he endured in painstaking detail.

Regaining dignity through writing

The police confiscated his manuscript twice and he had to start again from scratch. He says he almost lost hope but persevered: "Luckily, I have a very good memory."

"By writing this book, I was able to regain my dignity," he says. "I had been smashed to pieces and writing about the experience helped me to heal."

"Liao Yiwu's books are proof of his intellectual independence," says Wolf Dieter Egger from the German Booktrade Organization, adding that they are appropriate for promoting civic freedom. "I think that Liao Yiwu's life and experiences show how much personal courage and at how much personal risk he has stood up for freedom."

In its statement, the jury expresses its "cautionary hope that Liao Yiwu will one day be able to return to a free, democratic China." Liao Yiwu shares this hope: "Even if one cannot say that China has changed for the better, I am hopeful. Everyone has to be honest with himself."

Author: Christoph Ricking / act
Editor: Shamil Shams