Review by Choice Review
Liu Xiaobo received the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent advocacy of human rights while imprisoned by China for "incitement to subvert state power." No Enemies, No Hatred is a compilation of essays and poems by this prolific author. His return to China in 1989 from an academic position in the US when the Tiananmen Square protests developed led to the first of his arrests as a "black hand" who inspired students and dissidents. The essays summarize the government's economic and political policies since Tiananmen with commentary addressing the economic "miracle" that still disallows Chinese farmers to own land, and the political reality that assures the continuation of one-party rule. The Internet has created a vital forum for activists' promotion of human rights and the expression of egao (political satire). Despite the cynicism commonly expressed in private, Liu believes the intensity of public demands for democracy has been blunted by China's post-Tiananmen materialistic success. The invaluable part 4, "Documents," includes the landmark "Charter 08" addressed to the Chinese people, which Liu vigorously promoted, as well as the background to his current 11-year prison sentence in the "The Criminal Verdict" and Liu's response in "I Have No Enemies." Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. N. N. Haanstad Weber State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
A prominent Chinese intellectual and activist, Liu won international renown when he received the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Currently, he is serving an 11-year sentence, his fourth imprisonment in the past 22 years. Originally selected by his wife, Liu Xia, this collection of essays and a sprinkling of poems covers two decades of Liu's writings about politics, culture, and human and civil rights in contemporary China and details his transformation from bystander to observer to advocate. Though he is an equal in many respects to Vaclav Havel, who contributed a foreword to this volume, Liu is not as literary a figure. Instead, his voice is humble and inelegant, if vigorous. Liu's style reflects his enthusiastic adoption of the Internet and his strong identification with netizens everywhere. His writing would be simply informative if his subjects were not so urgent and the clarity of his moral stance not so gem hard, crystal clear, and necessary, as when he writes, Let's face it, the only way to live in dignity, inside this depraved society that we inhabit, is to resist.--Autrey, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Liu, the 2010 Nobel Peace laureate currently imprisoned in China for "incitement to subvert state power," registers wide-ranging dissent against the Chinese system in these withering essays and stark poems ("From the grins of corpses/ you've learned/ that it is only death/ that never fails"). Included are manifestos and trial statements denouncing China's dictatorship and calling for human rights, free speech, and democracy. Other pieces criticize the subtler corruptions of a repressive society: the frenzied nationalism of the Beijing Olympics; mass evictions and child slavery; soulless urban youth; the craze for Confucius, whom the author views as a mediocrity whose legacy is a Chinese "slave mentality"; the guilty compromises that prodemocracy leaders-himself included-make to protect themselves. Liu's alienation comes through in his strong, if conflicted, identification with Western ideals, Madisonian politics, and crypto-Catholic religiosity ("we will have passion, miracles and beauty as long as we have the example of Jesus Christ"); it sometimes prompts overly simplistic sociopolitical linkages, as when he blames China's contemporary culture of pornography on Mao's long-past tyranny. Though personal and idiosyncratic at times, Liu's ringing universalist defense of democratic rights and freedoms will resonate with American readers. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
