Zhang Yihe Recives the ICPC Second Freedom to Write Award

On October 30, 2004, the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) held its second annual Freedom to Write Award meeting in Beijing. More than sixty ICPC members and writers from across China attended the meeting. At the meeting, ICPC President Liu Xiaobo presented the second ICPC 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 later published in Hong Kong). "Days of Old Do Not Disappear Like Smoke" is a memoir about her father Zhang Bojun and other intellectuals accused of being Rightists purged during China's Anti-Rightist campaign in 1957. The book has touched the hearts of Chinese readers who lived through that difficult period. In the book, Zhang vividly depicts the main figures and events of 1957 during which more than 550,000 Chinese intellectuals were branded Rightists and put into prison or forced to do heavy physical labor, some of whom died in miserable conditions. The memoir truthfully exposes a period of Chinese history that brutally repressed the expression of critical analysis.

In his award speech, ICPC board member Yu Jie highly praised Zhang Yihe for restoring the integrity of the Chinese language with this candid account of that dark history. In her acceptance speech, Zhang Yihe 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. Liu Xiaobo, First Freedom to Write Award recipient Mr. Wang Lixiong, and Jiuding Public Research Firm attorney Mr. Zhang Zhuhua also spoke, each stressing the importance of the freedom to write and highly praising Zhang’s book. Writers and scholars came from Sichuan, Shangdong, Hebei, Hubei and Beijing, such as Bao Zhuenxin, Wu Shi, Lu Yuegang, Wang Dongcheng, Jiao Guobiao, Chen Min, Xu Xiao, and the Gao Brothers. Reporters from China Youth Daily and Reuters covered this important occasion.

Award Meeting Details in Chinese | Award Meeting Photos

Last updated: October 31, 2004