On His 68th Birthday, HRIC Honors Liu Xiaobo

Commemorative events were held in Times Square and Central Park.

Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize winner who dedicated his life for China’s democracy, freedom and human rights, was born on December 28, 1955. Today, he would have been 68 years old.

In honor of Liu Xiaobo’s birthday, Human Rights in China held commemorative actions in Times Square and Central Park in Manhattan. After many attempts and repeated censorship, Liu Xiaobo’s commemorative portrait was finally projected on the big screen in Times Square to remind the public of Liu Xiaobo and China’s human rights disaster. In order to pass the review, the simple commemorative text read": "Mr. LXB (1955-2017) WE LOVE YOU."

Mr. Liu Xiaobo, born in 1955 and passed away in 2017, we miss you.

In addition to the memorial at Times Square, Chinese human rights activists laid flowers at the Liu Xiaobo memorial bench in Central Park. A caring person also left flowers and poems to Liu Xiaobo at the bench. They included a few lines from the poet Zhao Ye:

I know that yesterday even the sea died, and a Leviathan will crush the Great Mountains.

Poetry can never charge into battle, but can bear witness to a kind of destruction.

In this world, there is nothing more durable and long-lasting than words.

The original text:

我知道昨日，连海都死了

一个利维坦将碾压苍山

诗歌从来不能冲锋陷阵

但可以见证一种覆灭

这个世界上，没有比词语

更坚硬更持久的东西

To find Liu Xiaobo’s bench in Central Park, enter through the West 96th Street entrance. You will find the bench just north of the tennis courts and in front of the small stone knoll.

Efforts to erect a sculpture commemorating Liu Xiaobo have suffered repeated setbacks, but Human Rights in China continues to make efforts to finalize its installation.

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