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No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems QUOTES

No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems QUOTES

1 " Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth. "

― Xiaobo Liu , No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems

2 " But unarmed righteousness fostered by love can overcome weapons and power, as demonstrated by the miraculous triumph of Jesus over Caesar, or Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King’s victories through nonviolent resistance. Jesus is a model of martyrdom because he withstood the temptations of power, wealth, and glamour, and remained steadfast even when threatened with crucifixion. Most important of all, Jesus exemplified opposition without hatred or the desire for retaliation; his heart was filled with boundless love and forgiveness. Completely eschewing violence, he epitomized passive resistance, serenely defiant even as he meekly carried his own cross. No matter how profane and pragmatic our world is, we will have passion, miracles, and beauty as long as we have the example of Jesus Christ. In "

― Xiaobo Liu , No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems

3 " The government forbade the broadcast of this “decadent bourgeois music,” and Li Guyi, the first mainland singer to imitate Teresa Teng’s style, was subjected to a parade of official criticism sessions. Nevertheless, where privacy could be found, people huddled around “bricks”—our nickname for the little square Japanese-made radio-recorders on which popular songs could be heard. We listened and listened, until we could sing the songs ourselves, everywhere—in the halls, in the cafeterias, in bed. Anyone who owned a “brick” always had plenty of friends. It "

― Xiaobo Liu , No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems

4 " To look squarely at the suffering of the ordinary people whose misery is recorded in the transcripts makes me feel that I am not qualified even to be called a “survivor.” It is true that I was one of the last people to leave Tiananmen Square on June 4th, but I did nothing to volunteer myself during the bloody terror of the massacre’s aftermath, nothing to show that a kernel of my humanity had survived. After I left the square, I did not go to Beijing Normal University campus to check on the students from my alma mater who presumably had also left the square. Still less did I consider going out into the streets to minister to dead and wounded whom I did not know. Instead I fled to the relative safety of the foreign diplomatic housing compound. It is no wonder that the ordinary people who lived through the butchery might ask: “When great terror engulfed the city of Beijing, where were all those ‘black hands’ ”? Fifteen "

― Xiaobo Liu , No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems

5 " China has entered an “Age of Sarcasm.” Anywhere outside of state-sponsored parties, entertainment shows, or the comedies and skits on television, China’s rulers and official corruption have become the main material for the sarcastic humor that courses through society. Virtually anyone can tell a political joke laced with pornographic innuendo, and almost every town and village has its own rich stock of satirical political ditties. Private dinner gatherings become informal stage shows for venting grievances and telling political jokes; the better jokes and ditties, told and retold, spread far and wide. This material is the authentic public discourse of mainland China, and it forms a sharp contrast with what appears in the state-controlled media. To listen only to the public media, you could think you are living in paradise; if you listen only to the private exchanges, you will conclude that you are living in hell. One shows only sweetness and light, the other only a sunless darkness. For "

― Xiaobo Liu , No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems