Rare video showing what life is like under house arrest for Liu Xia, the Chinese artist and poet married to jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, was screened for the first time on Tuesday in New York City to an audience of Chinese and American writers and activists who have pushed for her release.
Organisers said the two video clips of Liu Xia reciting two poems into a camera held by an unknown person at her apartment in Beijing were shot last month. Liu, wearing a sweatshirt and with her head shaved, gives a thumbs-up sign after reading the second poem.
Watch the video:
Liu Xia has been under house arrest for the past three years. In 2009, her husband, Liu Xiaobo, was convicted of subversion and sentenced to 11 years in prison for his activism after he wrote and disseminated the Charter ‘08 document calling for democracy. In 2010 he was awarded the Nobel peace prize, a move the Chinese government denounced and saw as an embarrassment.
Since then, authorities have kept Liu Xia isolated to prevent her from becoming, on her husband’s behalf, a rallying point for Chinese people seeking democratic change.