Liu Binyan
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Liu Binyan (; 7 February 1925 – 5 December 2005) was a Chinese author, journalist, and
political dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, a ...
. Many of the events in Liu's life are recounted in his memoir, ''A Higher Kind of Loyalty''.


Early life

Liu Binyan, whose family hails from
Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...
province, was born in 1925, in the city of
Changchun Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin, Jilin Province, China, on the Songliao Plain. Changchun is administered as a , comprising seven districts, one county and three county-level cities. At the 2020 census of China, Changchun ha ...
,
Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...
Province. He grew up in
Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...
, in
Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...
province, where he went to school until the ninth grade, after which he had to withdraw for lack of tuition money. He persisted in reading voraciously, especially works about
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and in 1944, he joined the
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
(CCP). After 1949 he worked as a reporter and editor for China Youth News and began a long career of writing rooted in an iron devotion to social ideals, an affection for China's ordinary people, and an insistence on honest expression even at the cost of great personal sacrifice.


Outspoken Critic in Early Years of PRC

Liu Binyan published influential critiques of the consequences of Party management in the 1950s. In rapid succession he encountered recognition, approval, criticism, and finally prosecution for crimes against the Party. In October 1955, he acted as the interpreter for visiting Soviet writer Valentin Ovechkin, who later tried to help Liu Binyan by writing a letter to
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
. Liu Binyan learned from Ovechkin's style and wrote the work "On the Bridge Worksite".


A Pair of Articles with a Big Impact

In 1956, he published "On the Bridge Worksite" (《在桥梁工地上》 "Zai qiaoliang gongdi shang"), which exposed bureaucratism and corruption, and "The Inside Story of Our Newspaper" ( 《本报内部消息》 "Benbao neibu xiaoxi"), about press control. The two works had a powerful nationwide impact. According to Liu, "'On the Bridge Construction Site' had been the first piece to criticize the Party itself since Mao Zedong had laid down the dictum in 1942 in his ' Talks at the Yan'an Forum' that writers should 'extol the bright side of life' and 'not expose' the darkness.


Labeled a "Rightist"

In 1957, following the publication of "On the Bridge Worksite" and "The Inside Story of Our Newspaper," Liu was labeled a "rightist" and expelled from the CCP (see Hundred Flowers Campaign). The campaign against Liu Binyan was closely associated with the campaign against another social critic and author, Wang Meng, who had recently published a highly influential work, "A New Arrival at the Organization Department."


Interim Years

After being rehabilitated in the 1960s, he again fell out of favor in 1969, and was condemned to a
forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
detention camp, where he spent eight years. After being rehabilitated again, he built up a sound reputation as a reformer and a corruption watchdog. From 1957 onward, he spent a total of 21 years in and out of labor camps.


Second Big Impact: ''People or Monsters'' in 1979

In 1978, after the "rightist" label was removed, Liu was re-admitted to the CCP but continued, in even starker terms than before, to write " reportage literature" (baogao wenxue) about injustices and the sufferings of ordinary people. '' People or Monsters'' (), a literary work about a corrupt official in the northern Chinese province of
Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...
named Wang Shouxin, created a sensation when it was published in 1979, and became a central element in the effort in China to reflect on and understand the course of Chinese social development, particularly over the course of the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
. ''People or Monsters'' was widely read in China, and was broadly re-distributed following initial publication. "What was powerful about Liu's piece was it universality: everyone in China knew people like Wang Shouxin, and it made everyone think of all those who had not been brought to justice." ''People or Monsters'' was the first in a series of works describing corruption and social problems, and was noteworthy for its use of fact-based reporting (
reportage Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
) in place of pure fiction. "Di'erzhong Zhongcheng"(《第二种忠诚》) Second Kind of Loyalty(1985) and other essays made him a household name among Chinese readers and cemented his reputation as "China's conscience." In 1985, when the Chinese Writers' Association was allowed (for the first and last time) to elect its own leaders, Liu Binyan received the second-highest number of votes to
Ba Jin Li Yaotang ( zh, s=李尧棠, t=李堯棠, p=Lǐ Yáotáng; 25 November 1904 – 17 October 2005), better known by his pen name Ba Jin ( zh, s=巴金, t=巴金, p=Bā Jīn) or his courtesy name Li Feigan ( zh, s=李芾甘, t=李芾甘, p=Lǐ F ...
, the surviving May-Fourth era writer.


Liu in the United States

In December 1986, college students demonstrated in over a dozen Chinese cities in order to demand greater economic and political freedoms.
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
, after two straight weeks of student demonstrations, believed that the student movement was a result of "bourgeois liberalization", and named three CCP members to be expelled, including Fang Lizhi, Liu Binyan, and Wang Ruowang. Deng directed then-
CCP General Secretary The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party ( zh, s=中国共产党中央委员会总书记, p=Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zǒngshūjì) is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party ...
Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang (20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the Leader of the Chinese Communist Party, top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from ...
to expel them from the CCP, but Hu refused. Because of his refusal, Hu was dismissed from his position as General Secretary, effectively ending his period of influence within the Chinese government. In January 1987, as part of Deng Xiaoping's crackdown on "bourgeois liberalism," Liu Binyan was again expelled from the CCP. In spring of 1988 he came to the United States for teaching and writing; then, after publicly denouncing the Chinese government for the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...
, he was barred from returning to China and never saw his homeland again. Although largely isolated from his Chinese readers, he continued to write about China where his sources often came from interviewing visitors from China. He published articles critical of Chinese corruption for the
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
media, and offered commentary for the U.S. government funded
Radio Free Asia Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a news service that publishes online news, information, commentary and broadcasts radio programs for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editorially independent reporting, has the stated mission of pro ...
(nonetheless, he was reported to "detest American capitalism" and expressed dismay at a certain Chinese dissident's support for the
Iraq war The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
). Until the end, he remained an adherent of
socialism with a human face Socialism with a human face (, ) was a slogan referring to the reformist and democratic socialist programme of Alexander Dubček and his colleagues, agreed at the Presidium of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in April 1968, after he became ...
, was critical of social inequality and
consumerist ''Consumerist'' (also known as ''The Consumerist'') was a non-profit consumer affairs website owned by Consumer Media LLC, a subsidiary of ''Consumer Reports'', with content created by a team of full-time reporters and editors. The site's focu ...
cynicism in China, and stressed that the CCP, which he had joined as a youth, had many positive achievements before the
Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...
crimes and its transformation into the "foul, reactionary force" that it was today.Interview with Liu Binyan. New Left Review, July–August 1992 He died in
East Windsor, New Jersey East Windsor is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located at the cross-roads between the Delaware Valley region to the southwest and the Raritan Valley region to the northeast, the township is an outer-ring suburb ...
in December 2005, from complications due to colon cancer. He was survived by his wife, Zhu Hong.


External links


Liu Binyan, a Fierce Insider Critic of China, Dies at 80
(''The New York Times''; December 6, 2005)

('' Guardian Unlimited'')
The 'Conscience of China' is dead
(''The Times''; December 6, 2005)
Exiled Chinese writer Liu Binyan dead
(''UPI''; December 6, 2005)
Leading Chinese dissident writer Liu Binyan dies at 80
(''Japan Today''; December 6, 2005)
China dissident Liu 'dies in US'
The prominent Chinese dissident writer, Liu Binyan, has died at the age of 80 in the US, reports say. (''BBC''; December 5, 2005)


See also

* Wang Shouxin *
Human rights in China Human rights in the People's Republic of China are poor, as per reviews by international bodies, such as human rights treaty bodies and the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), th ...
*
Anti-Rightist Movement The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign wa ...
*
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
*
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...
* Fang Lizhi * Wang Ruowang * Sayaka Morohoshi * Communism in China


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu Binyan 1925 births 2005 deaths Chinese dissidents Deaths from colorectal cancer in New Jersey 20th-century Chinese journalists Writers from Changchun International Writing Program alumni Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign Victims of the Cultural Revolution