One year after his death in captivity, the Nobel laureate and prominent Chinese dissident was commemorated in a small gathering near Taipei

The News Lens
Date: 2018/07/14
By: Nick Aspinwall

On the one year anniversary of his death, a small ceremony dedicated to the Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was held on Friday in Taipei.

A sculpture was unveiled in Taipei’s City Hall Park, just a stone’s throw away from Taipei 101. The commemoration was held three days after his widow, Liu Xia, arrived in Berlin after living under effective house arrest for eight years.

The ceremony was spearheaded by Wu’er Kaixi, a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests who later became a protégé of Liu. As dusk fell over the park, Wu’er spoke of his shock when Chinese authorities announced Liu’s liver cancer diagnosis in May of last year. Liu passed away weeks later amid international cries that China was denying adequate medical care to the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

A small crowd of a few dozen onlookers attended the gathering, which was lightly publicized but had been planned for months by Wu’er’s organization, Friends of Liu Xiaobo. Rather than a statue, the sculpture, designed by artist Cheng Ai-hua, consists of an image of Liu’s face, an open book adorned with a golden rose, and an empty chair, which Cheng said represented the seat left empty when Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia.    [FULL  STORY]