"Elegy to Lin Zhao, Lone Voice of Chinese Freedom" (2004) - Liu Xiaobo

Power and money reign supreme in our nation today. Universities count for nothing, and scholarship and ideas count for even less. Love, truth, and sacrifice are meaningless concepts, while betrayal and collective amnesia are taken as a matter of course.

My view as a Chinese is that Obama's elevation to the position of 44th president of the United States underscores the greatness of the American system.

In the conflict between survival of the flesh and dignity of the spirit, if we cower to preserve ourselves, we become mere zombies, despite our trappings of prosperity. If we stand up for our dignity, we live nobly, no matter how much we may risk or suffer.