Steel Gate to Freedom

Yu Jie is an award-winning writer, one of China’s most prominent essayists and critics, and a leading democracy activist and coauthor of Charter 08. His work has been banned in China since 2004, and he was arrested and tortured in 2010 for his close ties with Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo. Because of Yu's work on this biography, he was subjected to lengthy house arrest, as well as to kidnap and torture. A senior official in the Beijing security apparatus threatened Yu with a harsh prison sentence if he proceeded with his plans to publish. Yu had no choice but to leave China, bringing his wife and son with him to the United States in 2012. HC Hsu is the author of Love Is Sweeter (2013) and Middle of the Night (2015). An award-winning essayist and short-story writer, his works have appeared in both English and Chinese. His translations of Hu Lancheng, Chu Tien-wen, Chen Kehua, Yuan Ch’iung-ch’iung, and others also have been widely published.

Political exile Yu presents the unvarnished biography of fellow activist Liu in this intimate portrait of the man "labeled ‘the black hand' behind the Tiananmen student protests." Born during the Cold War, Liu's family's "dining table was a battleground" and his interest in writing began with membership in the Intellectual Youth; by 1984 he'd become a lecturer with a significant following. In diaristic form, Yu relates how Liu became involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and how he was arrested for his leading role. Liu was released but was arrested twice more in the 1990s. In 2003 he helped found the Independent PEN China Center and served as its president until 2007. Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, but was unable to collect it as he was once again arrested, this time for his role in writing—along with Yu and others—a 2008 manifesto, Charter 08, which called for a multiparty system in China. Liu remains imprisoned, but Yu notes that the Internet has offered a way for Liu to communicate with the outside world and continue his political work.

• Foreword—Jean-Philippe Béja1 The Young Boy on the Black Soil 2 Beijing Stories 3 The Black Hand of Tiananmen 4 Start from Zero 5 One Man’s War6 Final Warning: Charter 08 7 Liu Xia8 Nobel: A Crown of ThornsTimeline Notes Bibliography About the Author and the Translator