God Is Red - Liao Yiwu [97]
Jessie McDonald, 1941
Frances E. Powell, 1941
M. E. Soltau, 1941
Doris M. L. Madden, 1941
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Joyce, 1946
No recorded English name, 1948
Dr. Myrtle J. Hinkhouse
Dr. John K. Toop
Dr. William. J. Toop
D. W. Burrows
L. Hamer
Emma Blott
Dr. Watson
Australian, no recorded English name
Norwegian, no recorded English name
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of Dr. Sun, who during a two-year period accompanied Liao on trips to the villages in Yunnan and introduced him to the Christian communities there. My thanks also goes to those brave and tenacious Chinese Christians who bared their hearts to Liao Yiwu and whose extraordinary life stories inspired him to write this book.
I am also grateful to Yu Jie, a Christian and a well-known independent literary critic, for his support. Pastor John Zhang, at the San Mateo–based Bay Area Reformed Evangelical Church, has been actively involved in the Christian movement in China. His organization, Humanitarian China, has raised funds for Li Linshan, the “Cancer Patient” featured in the book, and also arranged for Dr. Sun to stay in the United States after the government banned his missions in Yunnan.
Of course, I am indebted to my wonderful agent, Peter Bernstein, and his wife, Amy, for their confidence and persistence. I am grateful that Tim Cribb in Hong Kong featured several of Liao’s writings in the Asia Literary Review and enhanced the book through his thorough editing. I also appreciate the editorial assistance and input from my friends Colin McMahon and Monica Eng at the Chicago Tribune and Robert Crowley in Springfield, Illinois.
This book also benefited from the consultations I had with Reverend Michael Bradley of the Chicago Archdiocese. Reverend Bradley meticulously reviewed the whole manuscript and patiently answered my queries, some of which required extensive research on his part.
Additionally, I am also grateful to Martin-Liao Tienchi, president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, for advocating and supporting independent Chinese writers such as Liao Yiwu.
In the early 1990s, Bruce Kinette and his mother, Vera, took me to several church services in order to help me understand American culture. Bruce also gave me a NIV Study Bible, which I used during the translation of this book. All the English equivalents for the biblical references cited in the original Chinese are based on the NIV version.
Over the years, my friend Gerhard Dierkes in Berlin has quietly helped me with my translation work and supplied many of Liao’s pictures.
In the same month the book was finished, my friend Kate Durham gave birth to a beautiful girl, Angie, who has brought tremendous joy to Kate and Craig, and has brightened the lives of friends like me. I hope that Angie will grow up in a peaceful world, where people continue to respect each other’s faiths and are allowed to practice their religions freely.
Linda Yu, who generously shared the story of her late grandmother, a devout Christian, helped me understand the Christian movement in the pre-Communist era. I am also grateful to Tao Zhang, Caren and Dale Thomas, and David Alexander for their warm support.
Most of all, I want to thank our editor Mickey Maudlin, whose interest in the topic and foresight made this book possible. Kathyrn Renz and Lisa Zuniga efficiently moved the editorial process forward, and for this, I am grateful.
Finally, I wish to thank my friends and co-workers Thaddeus Woosley, Hans Van Heukelum, Andrew Delaney, Kelly Drinkwine, and Tory Neff for their support and friendship.
About the Authors
LIAO YIWU is a Chinese author, reporter, musician, and poet. He is a critic of the Chinese regime, for which he has been imprisoned, and the majority of his writings are banned in China. Liao is the author of The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up. In 2003, he received a Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammett grant, and in 2007, he received a Freedom to Write Award from the Independent Chinese EPN Center.
WENGUANG