In the tranquil valley northeast of Beijing , one can see the typical autumn beauty of colorful and falling leaves in Beijing 's suburbs. On October 30, 2004, it was in a village in this village, Koulou Artists Village , sixty-two writers and reporters from various areas of China gathered to attend the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) Second Freedom to Write Award Meeting.

At the meeting, ICPC president Liu Xiaobo presented the Second Freedom to Write Award to Ms Zhang Yihe, for her work¡± Days of Old Do Not Disappear Like Smoke¡± (The unabridged version was titled ¡°The Last Aristocrats¡± when published later in Hong Kong) . ¡°Days of Old Do Not Disappear Like Smoke¡± is a memoir of her father Zhang Bojun and other intellectuals branded Rightists in the China 's Anti-Rightist campaign in1957. The book has touched hearts of many Chinese who lived through the period.

Yu Jie, ICPC board member, gave the award speech at the meeting. He highly praised ¡°Days of Old Do Not Disappear Like Smoke¡±, regarding it as one the few that revealed the truth since 1949. Yu Jie valued the book as it restored the integrity of the Chinese language with its candid account of that dark history. Liu Xiaobo emphasized that freedom to write was to be independent from any official mouthpiece. He elaborated the ICPC's value as a civil society is to protect freedom of speech. Zhang Yihe accepted the award with tears in her eyes. She stressed that one's writing cannot mix true from false, and that the truthful portrayal of life experience has an important impact on social justice. Wang Lixiong, the first ICPC Freedom to Write Award recipient, spoke from his philosopher's point of view, ¡°Before we had to face to the autocratic power alone. Now as more and more people stand to the autocratic power and demand more freedom and democracy, we feel safer than ever before.¡± Two well-known attorneys, Zhang Zuhua and Pu Zhiqiang, offered legal assistance to any writers who run into trouble because of their writings. This was the first publicly announced support to writers from legal society since 1989. ICPC board member, writer Liao Yiwu added color to the meeting when he played vertical bamboo flute (Xiao) to bless the exiled writers and the ¡°Tiananmen Mothers¡± (an organization of the mothers and family members of the June 4 th , 1989 Tiananmen massacre victims). When Liao read his poem, ¡°My son, are you cold in the heaven?¡±, many people moved to tears. Guo Qinghai , who was recently released from prison, had to excuse himself as he was afraid his cry would disturb the meeting.

Presented at the meeting were also Bao Zhunxin, Jiao Guobiao, Lu Yuegang, Wang Yi, Yu Shicun, Bei Cun. Reporters from China Youth Daily and Reuters covered this special occasion. The reporter from Reuters also interviewed Liu Xiaobo after the meeting.