1989-2019, Liao Yiwu

 

Thirty years ago, early on the morning of June 4th, the Tian’anmen Massacre took place. A young man from Canada called Michael Martin Day had come from Beijing to my home in Sichuan. Together we produced the voice cassette recording of my dramatic reading of my long poem “Massacre/Slaughter” on a large Kangli-brand tape recorder. At the time I hadn’t yet learned how to drink, however Michael and the underground poet Li Yawei drank a lot.

 

Amid [my memory of] the cries and gunshots on the BBC over the shortwave radio, I recited the poem three times, while Michael and Yawei banged on bowls and bottles. Then, on the music cassette’s case, I wrote The Age of Protest. We repeatedly recorded the same segments of my reading with music, thereby creating an echo effect between the start and the end of the recording. The opening inscription for the poem was: “I wish to present this poem to the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution; I would like to offer this poem to the 70th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement of China; I would like to offer this poem to the victims of the June 3rd Massacre.”

 

Later, this “Massacre” cassette was circulated to over 20 cities in China. Over 30 of those who spread it around the country were arrested and interrogated, of which 6 were imprisoned for over two years, Michael was expelled from the country as a spy, and as the main culprit, I was sentenced to 4 years for “instigating counter-revolutionary propaganda”.

 

Thirty years later, on the evening of May 7th, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in the vicinity of Columbia University in New York City, Humanitarian China and PEN America will jointly host a memorial for the Tian’anmen Massacre, entitled Rise Up: Tiananmen’s Legacy of Freedom and Democracy. Among those who will take the stage to read poetry or sing are witnesses such as Wang Dan, Fang Zheng, Zhang Boli, Ma Jian, and Zhou Fengsuo. Michael and I will be on stage together, reciting the poem “Massacre” in English and Chinese, with me foregrounding and backgrounding the reading with a Tibetan prayer bowl, a bamboo flute, a thumb piano, an abacus, and my voice. According to Chinese law, this will be the second time in 30 years we’ve “committed a joint offence”, a vicious crime deserving of heavy punishment.

 

Dear friends, readers of The Corpse Walker, God is Red, For a Song and a Hundred Songs, and Bullets and Opium, please come and support us, refuse to forget.

                                                                                          April 30, 2019



                                                         两个同案犯的《大屠杀》


30年前的6月4日凌晨，天安门大屠杀发生，一个叫戴迈河的加拿大青年从北京来到四川我家。我们一块制作了长诗《大屠杀》朗诵磁带，用一台体积很大的“康丽牌”收录机。那时我不会喝酒，但戴迈河与地下诗人李亚伟喝了很多烈酒。

后来这盘《大屠杀》磁带流传到中国20多个城市。有30多个传播者被逮捕和审讯，其中6人被关押两年以上，戴迈河被当作“间谍”驱逐出境，我作为首犯，以“反革命宣传煽动罪”，判刑4年。

30年后的5月7日傍晚，在纽约哥伦比亚大学附近的圣约翰大教堂，人道中国和美国笔会联合举办天安门大屠杀纪念，登台朗诵和歌唱的有见证人王丹、方政、张伯笠、马建、周锋锁等等。我和戴迈河将同台，一块用英文和中文朗诵长诗《大屠杀》，并交替以西藏转经钵、洞箫、姆指琴、算盘、人声作为背景和前景。按照中国法律，这是相隔30年的2次“共同犯罪”，情节恶劣，量刑从重。

亲爱的朋友们，《吆尸人》《上帝是红色的》《为了一首歌和一百首歌》及《子弹鸦片》的读者们，请到场支持我们，拒绝遗忘。

                                                                                   1989-2019, Liao Yiwu

 

Thirty years ago, early on the morning of June 4th, the Tian’anmen Massacre took place. A young man from Canada called Michael Martin Day had come from Beijing to my home in Sichuan. Together we produced the voice cassette recording of my dramatic reading of my long poem “Massacre/Slaughter” on a large Kangli-brand tape recorder. At the time I hadn’t yet learned how to drink, however Michael and the underground poet Li Yawei drank a lot.

 

Amid [my memory of] the cries and gunshots on the BBC over the shortwave radio, I recited the poem three times, while Michael and Yawei banged on bowls and bottles. Then, on the music cassette’s case, I wrote The Age of Protest. We repeatedly recorded the same segments of my reading with music, thereby creating an echo effect between the start and the end of the recording. The opening inscription for the poem was: “I wish to present this poem to the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution; I would like to offer this poem to the 70th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement of China; I would like to offer this poem to the victims of the June 3rd Massacre.”

 

Later, this “Massacre” cassette was circulated to over 20 cities in China. Over 30 of those who spread it around the country were arrested and interrogated, of which 6 were imprisoned for over two years, Michael was expelled from the country as a spy, and as the main culprit, I was sentenced to 4 years for “instigating counter-revolutionary propaganda”.

 

Thirty years later, on the evening of May 7th, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in the vicinity of Columbia University in New York City, Humanitarian China and PEN America will jointly host a memorial for the Tian’anmen Massacre, entitled Rise Up: Tiananmen’s Legacy of Freedom and Democracy. Among those who will take the stage to read poetry or sing are witnesses such as Wang Dan, Fang Zheng, Zhang Boli, Ma Jian, and Zhou Fengsuo. Michael and I will be on stage together, reciting the poem “Massacre” in English and Chinese, with me foregrounding and backgrounding the reading with a Tibetan prayer bowl, a bamboo flute, a thumb piano, an abacus, and my voice. According to Chinese law, this will be the second time in 30 years we’ve “committed a joint offence”, a vicious crime deserving of heavy punishment.

 

Dear friends, readers of The Corpse Walker, God is Red, For a Song and a Hundred Songs, and Bullets and Opium, please come and support us, refuse to forget.

                                                                                          April 30, 2019



                                                         两个同案犯的《大屠杀》


30年前的6月4日凌晨，天安门大屠杀发生，一个叫戴迈河的加拿大青年从北京来到四川我家。我们一块制作了长诗《大屠杀》朗诵磁带，用一台体积很大的“康丽牌”收录机。那时我不会喝酒，但戴迈河与地下诗人李亚伟喝了很多烈酒。

后来这盘《大屠杀》磁带流传到中国20多个城市。有30多个传播者被逮捕和审讯，其中6人被关押两年以上，戴迈河被当作“间谍”驱逐出境，我作为首犯，以“反革命宣传煽动罪”，判刑4年。

30年后的5月7日傍晚，在纽约哥伦比亚大学附近的圣约翰大教堂，人道中国和美国笔会联合举办天安门大屠杀纪念，登台朗诵和歌唱的有见证人王丹、方政、张伯笠、马建、周锋锁等等。我和戴迈河将同台，一块用英文和中文朗诵长诗《大屠杀》，并交替以西藏转经钵、洞箫、姆指琴、算盘、人声作为背景和前景。按照中国法律，这是相隔30年的2次“共同犯罪”，情节恶劣，量刑从重。

亲爱的朋友们，《吆尸人》《上帝是红色的》《为了一首歌和一百首歌》及《子弹鸦片》的读者们，请到场支持我们，拒绝遗忘。