Ran Yunfei (born 1965) is a Chinese writer and a high-profile

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

activist and

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ger. He was arrested in late March 2011, shortly after the start of the

2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests The 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, also known as the Greater Chinese Democratic Jasmine Revolution, refer to public assemblies in over a dozen cities in China starting on 20 February 2011, inspired by and named after the Jasmine Revolut ...

, on charges of "

inciting subversion of state power In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but ma ...

". He was released in August 2011 and remains under residential surveillance. Ran expressed through social media that he converted to Christianity on 31 October 2015. He was baptized by Pastor Wang Yi at Early Rain Covenant Church, and has been attending a Bible study since 2013.

Biography

Ran is a member of the ethnic

Tujia Tujia may refer to: *the Tujia people *the Tujia language The Tujia language (; zh, s=土家语 , t=土家語 , p=Tǔjiāyǔ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken natively by the Tujia people in Hunan Province, China. It is unclassified within t ...

minority and was born in

Youyang County Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, or Youyang County for short () is located in southeastern Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, bordering the provinces of Hunan to the east and Guizhou to the southwest. The county spans an area of , a ...

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

. After graduating from

Sichuan University Sichuan University (SCU) is a public university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The university is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. I ...

, where he studied Chinese literature, in 1987, he was engaged in supporting the students who participated in the

Tiananmen Square Protests 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 th ...

. Because of the sweeping crackdown from the authorities, he went to Ngawa Tibetan Prefecture for a time. He works for the magazine ''Sichuan Literature'' and is a resident of

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Province. Although he became a scholarly writer of Chinese classical culture hereafter, he was increasingly active in online writing. He is a prolific writer of social and political commentary. His blog is well known in China and his Twitter account has more than 44,000 followers. Ran was also among those who signed ''

Charter 08 Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by 303 Chinese dissident intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting its name and style fro ...

''.

Arrest

In the backdrop of the

, Ran was summoned to "tea" by public security on the morning of 20 February 2011 and detained. Officers later searched his home and confiscated his computer. On 24 February 2011, he was officially detained for "subversion of state power", according to a formal detention notice received by his wife. On 25 or 28 March 2011, he was formally arrested for "

" in China. He was released from arrest on 10 August 2011, and placed under residential surveillance.Chinese Blogger Released after Six-month Detention
" The Associated Press, 10 August 2011.

References

External links

Ran Yunfei on Twitter

Learning How to Argue: An Interview with Ran Yunfei
Interview in the New York Review of Books
Writing by Ran Yunfei in Chinese, English and French
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ran, Yunfei 1965 births Living people Tujia people Sichuanese Protestants Converts to Protestantism Chinese democracy activists Chinese male bloggers Chinese bloggers 21st-century Chinese essayists Writers from Chongqing Chinese prisoners and detainees Protestantism in Chongqing Charter 08 signatories