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Liao Yiwu wins Peace Prize

June 21, 2012

Chinese writer Liao Yiwu has won the 2012 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Liao, a prominent dissident who fled China for Germany in 2011, will collect his award in October at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

https://p.dw.com/p/15Iz1
Liao Yiwu outside a university in Munich
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

In awarding Liao, 53, the peace prize, the association cited his fearlessness in the face of oppression.

"Through his books and poems, Liao Yiwu gives the people on the periphery of Chinese society a literary monument," the book publishers' organization announced in a statement on its website.

Liao, also a journalist and musician, escaped to Germany from China last year by slipping over the Vietnamese border. In addition to the honor that comes with the prize, he will collect 25,000 euros ($32,000).

The association has awarded the prize since 1950. Winners include Herman Hesse; Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic; and Orhan Pamuk, who received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for Literature.

Two of his books have been published in English: "The Corpse Walker" and "God is Red."

mkg/ncy (dpa)