Drugs for the Mind by Sofie Sun

Drugs for the Mind by Sofie Sun

Author:Sofie Sun [Sun, Sofie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evatas Foundation
Published: 2015-08-11T22:00:00+00:00


_ An unknown author

Bei Ling has remained relatively obscure in China. His only official publication there is TODAY AND TOMORROW, a poem collection that was released through Lijiang publishing in 1988. Bei Ling opted to release his next poem collection THEME AND VARIATIONS in Taiwan in 1994. Bei Ling’s works are only published in Hong Kong and Taiwan now; none of his works have seen official publication in China since his TODAY AND TOMORROW. The censors would definitely try to prevent a potential publication from happening, but it is also because Bei Ling does not have any desire to publish in China. Even if he had the chance to publish his work, it is more than certain that he would need to delete or edit huge portions of the content. Bei Ling would simply be unable to accept such modifications to his work. Of course, Bei Ling does harbour the deep wish to publish his work in China some day in the future; however, this is only on the condition that any kind of edit needs to have the express approval of Bei Ling. Should the publisher fail this condition, then Bei Ling would rather remain an unknown existence in China. After his arrest in 2000, Bei Ling has essentially disappeared from public view in China. This does not mean that the Chinese government has let Bei Ling out of its sights. His name is blacklisted and even his participation in overseas activities remains under “home surveillance.”

When China was the guest-of-honour country at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2009, the German organisers initially invited Bei Ling to take part in a discussion panel. However, when Chinese state officials received notice of the invitation, they immediately demanded that the Frankfurt Book Fair retract the invitation of Bei Ling. Although the organisers complied with the request of the Chinese government, Bei Ling still decided to travel to Frankfurt with his friend Dai Qing—famed journalist and environmental activist—to participate as spectators.

This incident did not go unnoticed by the German media. The Germans criticised the Frankfurt Book Fair for submitting to political pressure from China. Finally on the eve before the official opening, the organisers released an open letter. In this letter, the Frankfurt Book Fair organisation publicly stated that it has received notice of the arrival of Bei Ling and Dai Qing. Not only did the organisers renew their invitation, but they also expressed their wish for Bei Ling and Dai Qing to attend the opening ceremony.

On the day of the opening ceremony the organisers invited Bei Ling and Dai Qing on stage to close the ceremony. However, the moment when Dai Qing took the stage, the official delegation from China suddenly decided to leave the stage in protest. After they left the stage, the Chinese party gave notice that they would withdraw from the book fair entirely. The Frankfurt Book Fair organisers immediately stopped the opening ceremony after this incident and offered their sincere apology to the Chinese delegation. The Chinese delegation



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