About Liu Xiaobo
Vita
Liu Xiaobo, born in 1955, grew up in Changchun in the People’s Republic of China. He spent the time of the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia. After studying literature he gained his PhD in 1988 at Beijing University. Liu has held several guest professor posts, including at the universities of Oslo, Columbia and Hawaii.
Liu was involved in the student protests in 1989, which were brutally suppressed on 4 June 1989. He then spent several years in prison and re-education camps. Liu could only publish his work outside of China. He was president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center from 2003 to 2007.
In December 2008 Liu was arrested on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power’. In December 2009 Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to eleven years in prison.
In December 2010 Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Shortly before that he had won the German PEN centre’s Hermann Kesten Prize.
