Brother Gaos’ art piece. ©Gao Brothers
Brother Gaos’ art piece. ©Gao Brothers
Author: Liao Yiwu, English translation: David Cowhig and Jessie Cowhig
Today, the Gao brother in the West must speak for his brother detained inside the Wall. This dilemma may give the world a new kind of performance art.
As a “recorder of this shameful era,” I look forward to the Communist Party’s trial of Gao. This will be the greatest possible boost for the Gao Brothers’ years-long series of political pop art. The trial of the arrested Gao Shen and the fugitive Gao Qiang is putting not the defendants but rather Mao Zedong and his incarnation, Xi Jinping on trial.
Last May, the writers’ human rights promotion organization PEN America invited me to New York, where I learned that Gao Shen’s family had moved from Beijing to Long Island, New York, and had settled down. That was a relief for him… I repeatedly warned him never to go back. I never expected that this would happen….
To all my fellow artists, writers, poets, and comrades who have rebelled against this regime, let me say that Xi Jinping’s dictatorship is now utterly lawless. During the regime’s terminal madness, if you don’t have a death wish, don’t make any more stupid mistakes, and don’t harbor any illusions about the regime.
We all witnessed Liu Xiaobo’s tragedy. No matter how famous you are, when you are confronted by someone like “Emperor Xi” with the cultural level of a second-grader, dreaming that you can find a way out of your trap is just that – a dream.
Here is the first public statement by one of the Gao Brothers:
Gao Shen, who has settled in the U.S., returned to China with his wife and children to visit relatives. They planned to fly back to New York from Beijing on September 3.
On the morning of August 26, around 11 a.m., about thirty police officers suddenly swarmed into the Gao Brothers’ studio in Yanjiao, searched for incriminating evidence, and demanded that Gao Shen hand over his phone. Gao refused and was forcibly handcuffed and taken away.
On August 27, Gao’s wife received a detention notice from the Sanhe Public Security Bureau, only to learn that Gao had been criminally detained by the Sanhe Public Security Bureau on August 26 on suspicion of violating the honor and reputation of heroes and martyrs. He is currently being held in the Sanhe detention center.
The artworks collected as evidence by the police were phase works reflecting on Mao Zedong’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution dating from over a decade ago. However, the crime of infringing on the honor and reputation of heroes and martyrs was only implemented as a criminal offense in 2021. Is it contrary to the commonly accepted “invalidity of ex post facto laws” in modern law: a state cannot punish someone for behavior that was not sanctioned by law at the time of the offense.
Setting aside whether Mao is a hero or martyr, let us remember that when Mao led China, he accused Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, of using a novel to oppose the Party.
Today, in Xi’s era, who is now accusing Gao Shen of using art to oppose Mao? Isn’t this ironic? One wonders whether the officials who ordered Gao’s arrest and the investigators handling the case have not thought this through.
Could it be that they don’t understand the irony of all this?
Or are simply not afraid of provoking the boss dragon’s wrath?
Do they truly believe that Xi Jinping, who for years has been talking about leading China and the world to a “community with a shared future for mankind” really does not understand the irony in this?
Why go through all this trouble! Perhaps it would be wise to consider that just possibly that these troubles will become so great that Xi that news of this foolishness will reach the ears of Emperor Xi, enrage his imperial countenance, and he will order that that this ridiculous proceeding be aborted.
