About Liu Xia

Born in 1959 in Beijing, Liu Xia is a poet, painter and photographer, and the wife of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo. She began writing poetry and fiction in 1981, took up photography in 1990, and later devoted herself to painting.

For over three decades Liu Xia has been one of the most notable figures of the contemporary Chinese artworld. Her work in various media focuses on freedom of expression but remains rooted in traditional Chinese values and styles. Her major works include Liu Xiaobo Liu Xia shixuan [Selected Poems of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia], published by Xiafei’er International Press, Hong Kong, (2000), and Fang Da [Enlarged], a photography collection.

Liu Xia is prohibited from public exhibit in China and her work is shown only in private or on the Internet. She met the writer and activist Liu Xiaobo in 1982. In 1996, they married while Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned for his writings in favor of democracy. Since his arrest, Liu Xia has become her husband’s spokesman to the outside world. After Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Liu Xia, though never charged or convicted in China, was put under house arrest. She has been deprived of all means of contact with the outside world since January 2010.

The world open around us,

We communicate in gestures.

— Liu Xia

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Née en 1959 à Pékin, Liu Xia est poète, artiste-peintre et photographe.

Depuis les années 1980, elle est une des figures les plus notoires du nouveau monde artistique chinois, épris de liberté d’expression mais ancré dans la tradition.

Jusqu’à la répression de la révolte étudiante de Tian Anmen, en juin 1989, Liu Xia et les artistes de sa génération étaient publiés et exposaient leurs travaux à Pékin ; mais depuis 1989, la censure règne. Liu Xia est interdite d’exposition publique en Chine et ses oeuvres ne sont montrées qu’en privé ou sur Internet.

En 1996, Liu Xia a épousé l’écrivain Liu Xiaobo, incarcéré pour ses écrits favorables à la démocratie : elle est devenue depuis lors son porte-parole auprès du monde extérieur. Après l’attribution du Prix Nobel de la paix 2010 à Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia, bien que jamais inculpée ni condamnée en Chine, a été assignée à résidence : elle est privée de tout moyen de communication depuis janvier 2011.

Alors que le monde s’ouvre de toutes parts

Nous (Chinois) nous ne pouvons communiquer que par gestes

— Liu Xia

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劉霞

1959年出生於北京，詩人、畫家和攝影家，2010年諾貝爾和平獎獲得者劉曉波的妻子。三十多年來，劉霞一直是中國當代藝術界最引人矚目的人物之一，她的作品出現於各種媒體，注重表現言論自由，但是依然根植於中國傳統價值和風格。劉霞在中國被禁止公開展出作品，因而她的作品只能私下展出或發表在網絡之上。1996年，劉霞嫁給了作家劉曉波，劉曉波因寫作倡導民主而被繫在獄。自劉曉波被捕以后，劉霞成了她丈夫的對外發言人。劉曉波在2010年獲得諾貝爾和平獎之後，劉霞被軟禁在家，雖然從未有任何指控，也從未有任何定罪。自2011年1月起，她被剝奪了一切與外界聯絡的方式。

“世界四面敞開

我們在手勢中交流。”

劉霞

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• “Your Lifelong Prisoner”: One of Liu Xiaobo’s poems to Liu Xia from prison.
• “Your Lifelong Prisoner”: Video of reading, by John Siddique, of this poem by Liu Xiaobo, with slideshow.
• “You Wait for Me with Dust”: Another of Liu Xiaobo’s poems to Liu Xia from prison. With audiofiles of readings in English and Welsh, plus downloadable PDFs of this poem in English, Welsh, and Chinese.
• “You Wait for Me with Dust”: Another online publication of Liu Xiaobo’s poems to Liu Xia from prison. With an audiofile of a reading of this poem in English.
• “You Wait for Me with Dust”: Video of a reading of this poem in English by PEN American Center’s outgoing president, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and incoming president, Peter Godwin, March 20, 2012.
• “You Wait for Me with Dust”: Video of a reading of this poem in English by 14 actors at the Notional Theatre of Wales, Cardiff, March 2o, 2012.
• “One Letter is Enough, Longing to Escape, A Small Rat in Prison, and Daybreak”: More of Liu Xiaobo’s poems to Liu Xia from prison.
• “One Letter is Enough, Longing to Escape, and Daybreak”: With an audiofile of a reading by Paul Auster.
• “Daybreak”: Audiofile of a reading by Edward Albee.
• “Longing To Escape”: Audiofile of a reading by Don DeLillo.
• “One Letter”: Audiofile of a reading by E. L. Doctorow.
• “To My Wife” and “Night and Dawn – To Little Xia”: More of Liu Xiaobo’s poems to Liu Xia from prison.
• PEN for Freedom: A Quarterly Journal of Literary Translations, No. 2, published by the Independent Chinese PEN Centre in Hong Kong. Summer 2010 issue. Includes four poems to Liu Xia from Liu Xiaobo, and one from her to him. PDF download.
• PEN for Freedom: A Quarterly Journal of Literary Translations, No. 4, published by the Independent Chinese PEN Centre in Hong Kong. Winter 2010 issue. “Special Issue for Celebrating Dr Liu Xiaobo being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.” Includes five poems to Liu Xia from Liu Xiaobo, and one from her to him, plus texts by Liu Xia and other authors.  Downloadable as PDF.

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