Black out

Today CNN, BBC and TV5 were partially blacked out today. Initially I thought it was again the receiver who was acting up. Or Emmanuel who played with the remote again, messing up the system...
In fact, today is a big day for Chinese human rights activists: Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Price. He was a leader in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, and has also co-authored the Charter 08, calling for multi-party democratic system and human rights respect in China. The later has ended him up in jail for a sentence of 11 years, which he started on December 2009.

From our perspective, here from our Beijing expatriate's cushy couch, it is just a black out on our screens. But in some other Chinese's humble dwellings, it might eventually cast some light to the current darkness.
Years of unrestrained propaganda and the Cultural Revolution's ordeal have left the Chinese society with deep scars, and the leaders with rather harsh reflexes. The late 80's, culminating with the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, have left somewhat murkier waters for anybody attempting to demand democracy,  human right respect, or simple change. Of course we were entertained by the more recent, flashy but composed, facade presented for the Olympics; fascinating and exalting it was! Everybody wants to believe in a better China, a more humane one.
How appropriate! I just finished the reading of Beijing Coma, from Ma Jian. It relates the memories of a medicine student who participated in the Tiananmen events. Dai Wei, the protagonist, got wounded by a bullet in the head, and remains in coma since.  It took 10 years for Ma Jian to write, and through the Dai Wei recollection of his own life, it recreates a pretty accurate tableau of the changes undergone by the Chinese society over the last 40 years, from a youth in the cultural revolution until today's economic race for success of his fellow students. Of course, the moments leading to the 89's events are vividly described.  Evidently, the book is banned in China, and its author, exiled for over 20 years now. If you are interested, this NY Times review gives you a more detailed overview of the story line.

However, the insistence of Ma Jian to tell Tiananmen story in details, and to recount the further oppression of its former participants, can be paralleled by Liu Xiaobo's own insistence on demanding human rights respect and democracy in the country. Despite the jail sentences following 1989, warnings and continuous repression, Liu continued incessantly to call for democratic reforms. The Charter 08 he co-authored, following the model of the anti-Soviet Charter 77 prepared by Czechoslovakia dissidents, has left the Parti leaders concerned enough to justify another jail sentence of 11 years, under the charges of "inciting subversion to the state power". I am somewhat surprised by the amplitude of their reaction, as only 350 intellectuals and human activists signed the petition. (What percentage of the Chinese population is this??)  At least 70 of the original 303 signatories have been summoned or interrogated at some point. Censorship runs fast and high when the word democracy is repeated a few times on a single piece of paper... 
Like Liu Xiaobo, Ma Jian believes in the power of analogies and dates. Ma Jian published his novel  right before the Olympics, and one year before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. The Charter 08 was published on December 10 2008, the day of the 60th anniversary of the UN resolution adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
However, Ma Jian, unlike Liu, does not believes in change so much. Ma Jian, in the preface to the Chinese edition of his book, argues that not only Dai Wei is comatose, but it is the Chinese people who truly are. "Only memory can help people regain the brightness of freedom" he argues. Let's hope that the nomination of Liu Xiaobo will help send an electroshock of light and energy to the Chinese youth, calling them to remember the values fought for by some of their fellows citizens. And encourage them to also request democracy and change.

Today, Liu Xiaobo probably does not know he won the prize; the Chinese government is trying hard to censor and discredit the information.  Despite censorship of the news, and of the control of the use of Liu's characters on emails and cell phones, the Chinese youth is still able to share and spread the information.  Internationally, China also reacted by saying it is wrong to give the prize to a convicted criminal, and warns Norway of possible damages to their political relations. (We have heard this threat before). Despite all this Chinese unease, this Nobel prize appears like a warning by the Western world to China, a statement telling them that despite their smoking mirrors and noisy rhetoric, someone is watching, aware of the violations taking place. And that China's attempt at joining the big leaders of the world also means responsibilities, along some of the West's rules...

But of course, from my couch, the screen is black...