Books by Liao Yiwu
Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre
by Liao Yiwu
On June 4th 1989, a massacre happened at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Protesting students, as well as the ordinary Beijingers defending them, were shot down. Many ended up in prison. Decades on, the Chinese Communist Party still bans all discussion of what happened on 六四 or 6/4. Our in-depth discussion with Sinologist Jeffrey Wasserstrom about the Tiananmen Square massacre took place on its 25th anniversary.
Bullets and Opium by Liao Yiwu is a new book (May 2019) that has come out since the interview, and mentioned by Jeff (via Twitter) as a book he would have included if the interview were conducted now. Liao Yiwu is a poet and writer, one of whose books, The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up, has already been recommended on Five Books. In 1990, he was arrested for his writing about the Tiananmen massacre, tortured and imprisoned.
The Corpse Walker
by Liao Yiwu
Liao Yiwu spent ten years in jail, where he was put with the ordinary criminals, so he mixed with all kinds of people and interviewed them and recorded their life stories, and it’s an extraordinary testimony about how people live at the bottom of society. Through the story of their lives you have a record of recent Chinese history: a kind of mirror of the life that has been lived by individuals.
Interviews where books by Liao Yiwu were recommended
Books to Change the Way You Think About China, recommended by Anne Stevenson-Yang
It’s important to understand what goes on beneath the surface in China, and how people feel and react, says Anne Stevenson-Yang, who spent many decades living and working there. She recommends books to better understand the country, from its imperial history to the economic take-off of the last four decades.
The best books on Life in China, recommended by Marianne Bastid-Bruguière
The renowned sinologist and holder of the Legion D’Honneur reflects on Chinese attitudes towards life. Discusses the five books she feels gives the reader the best all-round appreciation of Chinese society
