| Liu Xia ει |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 1959 (age 52β53) |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Occupation | poet, painter, photographer |
| Spouse | Liu Xiaobo (m. circa 1996-present) |
Liu Xia (born 1959) is a Chinese painter, poet, and photographer who resides in Beijing, China. She is best known as the wife of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
Liu was formerly a civil servant in the Beijing tax bureau,[1] and met her husband Liu Xiaobo while part of the Beijing literary scene in the 1980s.[2] She married Liu Xiaobo while he was imprisoned in China in a labor re-education camp, between the years of 1996 and 1999.
Ms. Liu prefers to lead the solitary life of an intellectual.[2] However, being the wife of an oft-imprisoned activist, she has been forced to act as his proxy in the public arena.[1] She has been described as her husband's "most important link to the outside world."[2] Because she is the wife of one of China's most prominent human rights advocates, she also personally experiences pressures from Chinese authorities for publicly voicing opinions.[3] Since his arrest, she lives under constant surveillance.[2] From the time of their marriage, during his several terms in prison, she has continued to speak out, although somewhat reluctantly, on issues of human rights both on her own and on his behalf.[4][5] Despite the pressures, she attempts to retain a life of normalcy.[2]
Liu Xiaobo's current sentence of 11 years was imposed after he helped write the political manifesto written in 2008 called Charter 08. Liu Xia begged her husband to not participate in drafting the document.[6] After initially heeding her pleas, he went forward anyway, immersing himself for three years drafting and re-drafting the document, which he later persuaded more than 300 prominent workers, Chinese Communist Party members, and intellectuals, to sign. The document was later "signed" by 10,000 users on the Internet.[2]
After it was announced that her husband had won the Nobel Peace Prize while he was imprisoned for an 11-year term for calling for multiparty elections in China, Liu Xia commented that βFor all these years, Liu Xiaobo has persevered in telling the truth about China and because of this, for the fourth time, he has lost his personal freedom."[6] She also said that she would visit him in jail and "give him a big hug". After visiting him, however, she was placed under house arrest and her mobile number deactivated.[7]