The price of marrying a great man

Here I help forward this news -- Chinese Nobel Laureate's widow "ready to die" in house arrest. news source

(Liu Xia, wife of the late human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, says she has nothing left to live for,in phone call with exiled friend. )

I have posted a World News about Liu Xia written by a western reporter and translated it into Chinese in my last Steemit blog, just like I wrote in it, the reason why I did it was I knew her pain deeply. It is really sad to see her face such a bleak life: After her beloved husband passed away, she is still not allowed to leave the country.

Maybe it is just the price to marry a great man!

I married an American husband--also a great scholar who I worship with my whole life and soul. I thought I had finally realized my ultimate dream this life, who knows I just go to the hell after his sudden death in China? I had to face his death and dealt with his funeral in China lonely, as if he was homeless. Of course, it is not the truth. He had a big family in US, but nobody from his American family would like to take risk to enter China, seeing him at the last time before cremation. As result, I mailed his bone ash to US. God knows how I was deprived of any right of a wife both in US and China cruelly: I am not allowed to enter US due to failing to get American visa, not to mention to enjoy treatment of a widow of American citizen. Although I am told that in US, all property of husband belongs to wife if husband passed by one of his American friends--a kindhearted American lady, and American widow can even inherit husband's retirement pension by another friend of his--also a kindhearted American lady who once worked with him in the same work unit. Yeah, I am not surprised at it, it is the same case in China, if husband owns a decent or permanent job, his widow can get some money each month.

On the other hand, according to Chinese customs and law, even if a humble and low Chinese peasant-worker died in work time, his employee should offer a one-off payment as death pension/work insurance to his wife/family, much less such a wonderful American scholar/teacher! But my husband's bloody private Chinese school refused to pay any money, telling lies by taking advantage of the ignorance of his American family. And I am also not permitted to take money of my American husband out of his Chinese bank card without password, even if I took my case to the local Chinese court, there's still no way to deal with such a complicated international issue, especailly US involved. What's worse, it is said that his American family has ever been advised by American embassy in China that they'd better not to go to China -- a dangerous country. You really can't imagine how and why a common cross-country marriage between China and US can unexpectedly escalate into a political war!

Let's read Liu Xia's story.

'I live like a plant': Nobel winner's wife 'going mad' under Chinese detention

“我像一株植物一样活着”：诺贝尔奖获得者的妻子在中国的羁押下快要疯掉了

'Too solitary/I have not the right to speech/To speak loudly/I live like a plant/I lie like a corpse' --- A poem written by Liu Xia

太孤单/我没有言论的权利/没有大声说话的权利/我像植物一样活着，像一具僵尸一样躺着
---选自刘霞的诗

Her poem is a true portrayal of my life, too. Many times I ask myself why I am still alive like a soulless person.

It is rather strange, when our heart is dead, our nature body is still crying out life itself. I find I like gorgeous pictures so much now.

Chinese Nobel laureate's widow 'ready to die' in house arrest

Liu Xia, wife of the late human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, says she has nothing left to live for, in phone call with exiled friend

(Author: Lily Kuo Time: Wed 2 May 2018 23.20 EDT)

Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, has said she is ready to die in protest at being held under house arrest in China for more than seven years.

“Now, I’ve got nothing to be afraid of. If I can’t leave, I’ll die in my home. Xiaobo is gone, and there’s nothing in the world for me now. It’s easier to die than live. Using death to defy could not be any simpler for me,” she said, according to a phone call on 30 April, recorded by her friend and exiled writer, Liao Yiwu, and posted online.

“现在，我没什么好恐惧的。如果我无法离开，就死在家里吧。晓波已经去了，我亦生无可恋。死亡比活着更容易，用死亡来抗争于我最简单不过。”她说，根据4月30号她的朋友廖亦武，一位流亡作家上传到网上的电话录音。

Liu, 50, has been under house arrest since 2010 after her husband, Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the Nobel peace prize in absentia for his activism in China. Her husband, a civil rights campaigner, was jailed in 2009 for subversion and died last year from liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence.

In an excerpt of the 16-minute phone call with Liao, Liu is heard crying and cursing. “I’m so fucking angry that I’m ready to die here … If I’m dead, it’ll all be done with.”

At one point, Liu cries for several minutes. In the recording, Liao plays the song Dona, Dona, from a Yiddish song released during the second world war about a calf being led to slaughter.

一度，刘数次哭泣。在录音里，廖放了一首多娜多娜歌曲，世界二战中流行的一首关于小牛被屠杀的犹太歌曲。

“Please allow me to use Liu Xia’s sobbing as its new lyrics,” Liao wrote. “Dona, Dona, give her freedom. Dona, Dona, please cry out loudly for her.”

Advocates have repeatedly called for Liu’s release. A former civil servant and a poet, she has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. Chinese authorities insist she “enjoys all freedoms in accordance with the law”, but friends and advocates say her movements have been severely restricted and she lives under constant surveillance.

During this time both of Liu’s parents died and she has been taken to hospital at least twice for a heart condition. According to the rights activists, Liu has told her lawyer about having severe depression.

After her husband’s death, Liu’s supporters hoped she would be allowed to leave the country.

“First they told her to wait until the party congress was over; next they told her to wait until the conclusion of the ‘Two Sessions’ in Beijing in March of this year,” Liao wrote in his post on the US-based human rights site, Chinachange.org, citing legislative meetings held late last year and this year.

Germany and the US have both called on China to remove restrictions on Liu and allow her to leave the country. But activists say Chinese authorities are likely to keep her silenced to prevent her from becoming a symbol or rallying point for other dissidents.

“The cruelty the Chinese government has shown Liu Xia is a chilling signal for human rights defenders across the country that Xi Jinping’s regime does not care about international pressure. She’s never been suspected, charged or convicted of a crime, but has lived in a prison for eight years,” said Frances Eve, a researcher with the advocacy group, Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Xi Jinping needs to let her go.”

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P.S. I find my late American husband's English recording is still there. Just Click here and listen to it. He passed away in China, without a sound, even without a funeral! Only my younger sister and I cremated his remains hastily.

Who can still remember one of the most famous Tagore's poems: 'I leave no trace of wings in the air, but I am glad that I have had my flight.'?

Yeah, he had his flight!

He disappeared like a bubble in the air, 'Very quietly I take my leave, As quietly I came here.'

But God knows he had really ever been to China(a dangerous and closed country?), dedicating his life to helping Chinese students learn English. It is a huge shame for his bloody Chinese school/employee to treat his sudden death in China so ruthlessly! The kindhearted Chinese people who stick to the real Chinese traditional culture can't absolutely allow to do so!

God knows he was a great man!