Laudatio for Li Chengpeng

Winner of the Best Blog award at The Bobs 2013

June 18, 2013 

Bonn

I am very pleased and honored to give the laudatio for Li Chengpeng on his winning the Best Blog award at The Bobs 2013.

Chengpeng grew up in China’s remote Xinjiang region, where his father is a team leader of the so-called Mao Zedong Thought Performance teams. Under the banner "arts must serve the masses" and "arts must serve the politics," these teams were formed by both professional and amateur artists to deliver songs, dances, music, and minidramas of pure propaganda value to the masses, including workers, peasants, and soldiers.

So Chengpeng is very familiar with the installed ideology even in his childhood. Perhaps ever since he has been fascinated by the Chinese ways of speaking, or, most of the times, not speaking.

In a talk at Peking University named “SPEAK” last year, Chengpeng traced that during the Great Famine in the late 50s and early 60s, the whole nation lost its language. Not only did they lie to their family and friends in political struggles, but they also lied to their own stomachs.

You can’t say “I’m hungry,” and you can’t say “I love you,” and you definitely can’t speak the truth… Speaking, as an animal instinct, a way of thinking, a right…it was taken away… Having lost the ability to speak the truth, we will tell many lies.

For a people that have produced the world’s most beautiful language, “speaking” has now become a great problem. Everyone is bored to death, living in this sterile plastic land of official discourse, repeating lies, deceptions, and ridiculous claims that everyone knows to be false.

What does Chengpeng do? No other than helping the Chinese regain their ability to speak. Chenpeng began his career as a journalist and first rose to prominence for covering on corruption within China's professional soccer establishment. This coverage prompted persistent and anonymous threats against him and his family.

Then, in 2008, Chengpeng engaged in the investigation of collapsed schools after the big Sichuan earthquake. It is this earthquake that turned Chengpeng into an activist, not only joining rescue efforts, but also criticizing the shoddy construction of school buildings in which untold numbers of children died.

In 2011, Chengpeng announced that he would seek political office as an independent candidate in his hometown of Chengdu, Sichuan province. While not technically illegal, the decision represented a rare and bold move in a country where candidates for political office are typically appointed by the Party.

Chengpeng went to the office first thing on election day, only to be informed by a guard that the election had already taken place - at 2.30am. Needless to say, Chengpeng was not elected.

While doing a lot of activism, Chengpeng never stops writing. He becomes one of the most famous Chinese social commentator, best-selling author, and popular blogger as well as microblogger. Chengpeng’s new book “The whole world knows” was published this year and he was forbidden to talk at all book-signing events. The picture of him with a black mask and words written on his T-Shirt “I love you all” becomes a symbol for young Chinese who are fighting for their freedom of speech because “there is no other way out”.

Through brave individuals like Li Chengpeng, the Chinese will regain the ability to speak. The whole world knows.

I offer Chengpeng my congratulations on his outstanding achievement in winning the Best Blog award at The Bobs 2013!