On Fang Lizhi (1936–2012) by Perry Link

-With a 2007 Lecture by Fang Lizhi! 

Fang Lizhi, a distinguished professor of astrophysics, luminary in the struggle for human rights in contemporary China, and frequent contributor to The New York Review, died suddenly on the morning of April 6. At age seventy-six he had not yet retired, and was preparing to leave home to teach a class when he commented to his wife that he did not feel quite right. She urged him to stay home and he agreed, saying he would call his department secretary to explain. A few minutes later he had died in his chair at his home office....

Borrowing Fang’s wit, we might note that the authorities did more than listen. They wanted him. The 1989 warrant for his arrest was never dropped, so that when he died he was still officially “wanted”: for “the crime of counterrevolutionary incitement” and as “the biggest black hand behind the June Fourth riots.”


On Fang Lizhi (1936–2012) by Perry Link | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books:

Fang Lizhi 2007 LA Speech for the 50th Anniversary of the Anti-Rightist Campaign



http://youtu.be/F3wTjE6A22s