1. Liao Yiwu is a Chinese author, reporter, musician, and poet.
15 Facts About Liao Yiwu
1. 2.
Liao Yiwu is a critic of China's Communist Party, for which he was imprisoned in 1990.
3.
Liao Yiwu has been living in Germany since April 2011.
4.
Liao Yiwu was born in 1958, the same year as The Great Leap Forward.
5.
Liao Yiwu's mother was arrested for attempting to sell government issued coupons on the black market.
6.
Liao Yiwu started composing his own poems which were published in literary magazines.
7.
Liao Yiwu failed the university entrance exams and began to work for a newspaper.
8.
In February 1990, Liao Yiwu was arrested as he was boarding a train.
9.
Liao Yiwu received a four-year sentence and was placed on the government's permanent blacklist.
10.
Liao Yiwu then began to interview other prisoners about their lives.
11.
Liao Yiwu lived for a while as a homeless street musician in Chengdu, collecting stories.
12.
Liao Yiwu was arrested several times for conducting "illegal interviews" and for exposing the dark side of the Communist Party.
13.
In May 2008, after the Sichuan earthquake, Liao Yiwu went to the disaster region and interviewed survivors fighting corrupt officials.
14.
Liao Yiwu visited Germany accepting invitations to literary festivals in Hamburg and Berlin as well as to an event in Cologne.
15.
On July 6,2011, Liao Yiwu arrived in Germany having left China overland by crossing the border with Vietnam.