LIU Xiaobo has gone to Australia ready and willing to be seduced by democracy. For Mr Liu, one of China's harshest social critics and among the most prominent dissidents of 1989, says that that year and the pro-democracy movement taught him one major lesson.
''I learned from this experience that despite the fact that I had read so much about democracy, thought about it, particularly in this movement, I know nothing about democracy.
''Democracy is a blank paper to me.'' In Australia for three months as a visiting scholar at Canberra's Australian National University, Mr Liu admits he knows of the problems such as poverty and unemployment in Western societies.
He says: ''I have read a lot of books that raise these problems. But, in fact, I would just love to be completely seduced by Western democracy, to be totally seduced to the point of being completely alienated.'' He won't allow that to happen but says it's hard to come to a country like Australia and see its true nature when most of his knowledge is based on books.
On his first day he was wide-eyed with enthusiasm - for the people, the harbour and views, even for the colour of the grass in the Botanic Gardens.
''I have been looking at all the faces, there are so many different expressions, types of people, it is really quite exciting.