因在1989年6月4日凌晨,與加拿大漢學家 Michael Martin Day 一起創作並製作《大屠殺》錄音磁帶,並傳播到20多個城市,以及組織拍攝詩歌電影《安魂》而被捕,判刑四年,受盡折磨,曾在獄中自殺兩次。出獄後長期從事底層故事採集和地下文學創作,并通過「二渠道」出版了被中宣部和公安部聯合查禁的《沉淪的聖殿》《中國底層訪談錄》。
2007年,紐約經紀人彼得•伯恩斯坦在《巴黎評論》看到黃文翻譯的《底層》片段,立即取得全球版權。經數家出版社競爭,2008年5月該書英文版The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up由蘭登書店出版,令廖亦武在西方一夜成名。彼得•伯恩斯坦評價道:「廖亦武不僅是中國當代作家中最優秀、最具挑戰性和創新的一位,更是一位勇敢大膽的有著獨立意志的人,任何時候都會捍衛自己自由言論和自由思考的權利(Liao is not only a fine writer but a courageous and brave and individual willing to stand up at every turn for his right to speak and think freely.)。」
On January 18, 2023, the writer Liao Yiwu was invited to give the "Stuttgart Future Lecture" at the Stuttgart City Hall in Germany,subsequently published as "Invisible Warfare - How Does A Book Defeat An Empire?", which aroused widespread reactions. This speech not only concerns Liao Yiwu’s creative journey but is also a record and reflection on his witnessing of the times. Consequently, Taiwan Yunchen Culture is especially publishing a Chinese and English edition of the speech, so that more readers in the East and West can understand Liao Yiwu’s journey of resistance against the Chinese Communist Party’s totalitarianism through his literary works. This is Liao Yiwu's first collection of writings in both Chinese and English, and it is being issued simultaneously in the Western world.
這本書還同時收錄了從二〇一九年開始寫的多篇人權文學傑作——包括聲援香港雨傘革命,被捕判刑的作家王怡,詩人王藏,六四獄友李必豐等人,以及當時為營救諾貝爾和平獎得主劉曉波遺孀劉霞的多篇呼籲,也同時收錄上述諸君的詩文,讓讀者可以同時觀照與本文對應的文學讀本,篇篇深觸人心,令人動容。本書的譯文由加拿大漢學家戴邁河(Michael Martin Day)擔綱。他於一九八〇年代到山東大學、南京大學擔任文化交流學者, 一九八六年他再至中國,結識了劉曉波、廖亦武、貝嶺等詩人,從而接觸、翻譯和研究中國地下詩歌。一九八九年六四屠殺前夕,廖亦武創作了長詩《大屠殺》,他與廖亦武合製了《大屠殺》朗誦磁帶,後來廖亦武以「反革命宣傳煽動罪」名義被捕,隔年,戴邁河以「間諜」罪名被驅逐出境。因此,這本書的合作別具歷史文獻的意義。
This book also includes several masterpieces of human rights literature written by Liao since 2019—including support for the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong, for writer Wang Yi who was arrested and sentenced to prison, the poet Wang Zang, and the June Fourth convict Li Bifeng, etc. Several appeals by Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, are also included among the poems and essays of the above-mentioned gentlemen, so that readers may reflect on the corresponding literature at the same time. Each piece is deeply touching and moving. The translation of this book is led by the Canadian-born sinologist Michael Martin Day. In 1982-1984, he was a cultural exchange scholar at Shandong University and Nanjing University. In 1986-1988, he met Liu Xiaobo, Liao Yiwu, Bei Ling, and other poets in China, and thus encountered, studied, and began translating Chinese underground poetry.On the eve of the June 4th massacre in 1989, Liao Yiwu composed the long poem "Massacre", and Day and Liao co-produced the recitation tape of "Massacre" shortly thereafter. Later, Liao Yiwu was arrested on the charge of "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement", while Day was accused of espionage and deported. So, their collaboration on this book gives it the unique significance of an historical document.
Liao Yiwu has admitted, I once declared I was "fighting for the freedom of others", but I cannot seriously recall any prisoner of the empire whose fate of being slaughtered has been altered because I wrote of him or her. And this kind of truth is suffocating—---- Even so, this "Human Rights Literature Reader" is worthy of the reflection and continuous attention of all readers. Only reading can resist forgetting, and forgetting is exactly the effect of intimidation that totalitarian regimes wish to achieve.