Viral Alarm
On 19 October 2020, legal counsel acting on behalf of Geng Xiaonan and her husband, Qin Zhen, publishers who had been detained by the Beijing authorities on 9 September 2020 on suspicion of ‘illicit business practices’, was formally notified that, following a preliminary investigation, his clients had now been officially arrested and would, in the fulness of time, be arraigned in court.
Geng and her husband, Qin Zhen, who were being held at the Haidian Detention Centre in the north-western ‘silicon valley’ area of Beijing, had themselves learned of their fate on 15 October, days before her captors deigned to inform their lawyer.
The following day, on the 20th of October, one of Geng’s supporters posted a poem written in 1983 by the noted writer Mang Ke (芒克, 1951-) on their Weixin account, along with a recording of the poem being read out loud. The recitation was followed by a passage from Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’. We reprint that poem here.
— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
20 October 2020
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A Petition for Geng Xiaonan
- 北明，“秋風秋雨愁煞人”——徵集簽名聲援中國俠女耿潇男, 《縱覽中國》, 2020年10月19日
Related Material
- The Editor & Samuel Wade, ‘Geng Xiaonan & the Siege of Beijing’, China Heritage, 12 October 2020
- Anonymous, ‘Geng Xiaonan, Ren Zhiqiang & China’s Refuseniks’, China Heritage, 2 October 2020
- ‘The innocent cry to Heaven. The odour of such a state is felt on high.’, China Heritage, 1 October 2020
- Li Xueyuan 李雪原, ‘Geng Mulan — a poem for a hero’, China Heritage, 26 September 2020
- Xu Zhangrun 許章潤, ‘Xu Zhangrun: “I Am Compelled to Speak Out in Defence of Geng Xiaonan” ’, China Heritage, 24 September 2020
- The Editor & Bei Ming 北明, ‘The Kafkaesque Trials of Geng Xiaonan’, China Heritage, 20 September 2020
- Ai Xiaoming 艾曉明, ‘Geng Xiaonan’s Dance of Defiance’, China Heritage, 16 September 2020
- Bei Ming 北明, ‘A Chinese Decembrist and Professor Xu Zhangrun’, China Heritage, 10 September 2020
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陽光中的向日葵
芒克
你看到了嗎
你看到那棵陽光中的向日葵了嗎
你看它，它沒有低下頭
而是把頭轉向身後
好像是為了一口咬斷
那套在它脖子上的
那牽在太陽手中的繩索
你看到了嗎
你看到那棵昂著頭
怒視著太陽的向日葵了嗎
它的頭幾乎已把太陽遮住
它的頭即使是在沒有太陽的時候
也依然在閃耀著光芒
你看到那棵向日葵了嗎
你應該走近它
你走近它便會發現
它腳下的那片泥土
每抓起一把
都一定會攥出血來
***
Sunflower in the Sun
Mang Ke
Do you see?
Do you see that sunflower in the sun?
You see, it didn’t bow its head
But turned its head back
As if to bite through
The rope around its neck
Held by the sun’s hands.
Do you see it?
Do you see that sunflower, raising its head
Glaring at the sun?
Its head almost eclipses the sun
Yet even when there is no sun
Its head still glows.
Do you see that sunflower?
You should get closer to it.
Get close and you’ll find
The soil beneath its feet
Each handful of soil
Would ooze with blood.
© Mang Ke
Translation
© Jonathan Stalling &
Yibing Huang
Accompanying Material
講座 | 瀟男：話説日本文創產業（第1講）
講座 | 瀟男：話説日本文創產業（第2講）
講座 | 瀟男：文創產業中的日本形象與世界精神（第3講）
音樂故事 | 再唱一段思想起
音樂故事 | 明天還是要繼續
葉匡政的詩《在荒謬的時代沒有正確的生活》朗誦：何彥军
朗诵 | 秋實：不敢紀念海子
音樂故事 | 在那遙遠的地方
我的聲音 | 我咽下一枚鉄做的月亮
我的聲音 | 嘆息也有回聲
我的聲音 | 相信未来
我的聲音 | 庄容《 如夢山河的故人》
我的聲音 | 生命的絕唱《秋葉》（紀念版）
我的聲音 | 我爱妳至深，妳却一无所知
故事 | 諾蘇人的婚嫁
故事 | 大涼山裏的葬禮
講座 | 鄭也夫：顛覆你的教育觀
我的聲音 | 母親的車票
转载 | 眼睛是用来看路的
我的聲音 | 雲水禪心
故事的开始是这样的……
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Source:
- 阿蘇拉則的鈴聲, ‘我的聲音 | 陽光中的向日葵’, 2020年10月20日
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