Finally I said, “How about bringing all the creditors together in one place and letting me get the thanking over with all at once?” I did not doubt that many people had, for years, meant well as they sent letters and presents to me in China. But didn’t get any of them. Not even a postcard. The police always said I had no mail. So in Germany I often was expected to thank people for things that in fact had gone to the police. I could only fake my gratitude.
mandag 23. september 2024
‘What I’m Always Doing Is Escaping, Escaping, Escaping’ A Conversation with Liu Xia and Ai Weiwei
Let me give an example of how unfree I was in China. Every night, the outside door to the building Xiaobo and I lived in was chained closed with a great iron chain. Who could imagine living this way? Then when I came to Germany . . . well, before I got on the airplane I took a lot of medicine, so I was foggy at first, but I later discovered that, in my so-called freedom, I had become a debtor. People came to me one after another saying “you should thank X,” “you need to thank Y,” “I’ve done this for you,” “I’ve done that for you,” and on and on—until I realized that, “I am free but have become everyone’s debtor.”
Finally I said, “How about bringing all the creditors together in one place and letting me get the thanking over with all at once?” I did not doubt that many people had, for years, meant well as they sent letters and presents to me in China. But didn’t get any of them. Not even a postcard. The police always said I had no mail. So in Germany I often was expected to thank people for things that in fact had gone to the police. I could only fake my gratitude.
Finally I said, “How about bringing all the creditors together in one place and letting me get the thanking over with all at once?” I did not doubt that many people had, for years, meant well as they sent letters and presents to me in China. But didn’t get any of them. Not even a postcard. The police always said I had no mail. So in Germany I often was expected to thank people for things that in fact had gone to the police. I could only fake my gratitude.
