You are not fighting alone: to Tan Zuoren.

Yunfei Ran

I received a text in the morning of March 31 and knew that you were taken away by them (by translator: “them” refers to government). In a country of insecurity and with sometimes terror in air, while this was not out of my expectation, still I could not believe it and would rather think of it as a canard. Since such canards had happened many times—which represents friends’ care for you—I didn’t take the text serious at first sight. But after I asked your friends who have more associations with you, it was assured that you were really taken away this time; it was not a canard.

Having made sure of what happened to you, I was in my room along recalling our friendship of over ten years; I started to feel unwell. The liberality when you drink, the promises and loves you keep to your friends, the persistence, fortitude and braveness, “slow in speech but quick in action” of your working, are all that make your friends bear in mind forever. I have little idea of when you started to involve yourself in public activities; I didn’t further into your bright history as you didn’t mention. I only know that for many years you have been working with “Green River”, one of Sichuan’s renowned NGOs, and devoted yourself to many of Sichuan’s environmental activities. The love you have for your hometown makes you intolerable of anything harmful to the land on which you grow up. You were opposed to construction of hydropower station on the only water source for Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province), Bai Tiao River (if constructed Chengdu will be in endless trouble); you were against construction of Zi Pingpu hydropower in Du Jiangyan (a city close to Chengdu), especially after earthquake you took pains to accentuate, repetitively, the potential trouble that this reservoir harbors to both Chengdu and Du Jiangyan. All of these have less to do with your own interest, but more with your conscience.

Concerning constructing of Peng Zhou petro-chemical project (PZPC) on seismic belt, and the hidden problems it might bring to Chengdu, you are dreadfully worried. You are the most rational and most stubborn one in fighting against PZPC and also doing the most; when almost everyone were about to surrender, you were still running for solutions by all means. You were a bearded Quixote, persevering in your own investigation with effort even when some people who thought themselves smart satirized your struggling. You said, as being one of Chengdu people (you parents were from Hunan, you born in Chengdu), if not combating against the projects detrimental to Chengdu, you could hardly sleep and eat. You said, if we know they are going to harm us but we don’t oppose them, aren’t we Chengdu people coward? You kept petitioning the province congress for requiring public debate regarding advantages and disadvantages of the project; you continuously and rationally proposed relevant suggestions of middle point, but barely received attentions and replies. You went on spreading out the jeopardy of the project, and you even came up with the idea to wrap white cloth around head and attach white label to cars, to show the impression of weakness (rather than demonstration), in order to draw attentions from relevant parties. While the project is now under an accelerated way, Zuoren, you didn’t fail to live up to your conscience, you didn’t let your family down, especially your kids—it’s the duty of parents to fight for the right to subsistence and dignity of their offspring—and you didn’t disappoint the majority of Chengdu people who were in silence.

You were running a magazine called Wen Huan Ren with friends, issuing lots of articles concerning democracy and freedom, which the readers enjoyed a lot and, meanwhile, worried about you, but it had been around for years until not allowed to operate. You are a person more than taking action, you also write to express your opinions. After the earthquake, not only did you go up to the stricken area to help suffers and participate in many of post-disaster reconstructions, but also you wrote down and distribute what you had seen and heard, to let more of those that could not be there personally know about some of the hidden and masked truth. Zuoren, you were in danger, but you were still trying all your best to help others. Recall the night you received a phone call at Zi Pingpu dam from some sufferer in Bei Chuan, you drank liquor with tears, you marched along in darkness; wood and stones moved. Liu Shaokun from Guang Han (by translator: a city in Sichuan) was detained and investigated because of taking pictures in the stricken area with you, and posing them online, you approached those in charge and told them that “I took him there and took pictures together, I will be with him together to jail.” At last, that Liu shaokun could be freed has a lot to do with your care and endeavor. You are such a person with affection and faith, and responsibility.

You are a father of two kids, which makes you unbearably upset at the massive deaths of students due to shoddily-constructed schools. I also have one kid; when we were drinking we talked about we would choose to die had our kids encountered the same event. We understood deeply that the grief and helplessness of those parents were desperate to an extent of extremity. They were in need of consolation and care, but they needed just and truth more, the same feeling with that of ours as all being parents. Therefore, you brought up the idea to build up an archive of student deaths in the earthquake on May 12, and drafted a detailed documentation and were to put into practice. After you sent it to me with approval, I publicized it, and, consequently, lots of attention attracted. Perhaps it was because of this archive that brought you with disaster, but the archive was such a rational appeal! They should understand that the masked truths and hidden conflicts will break out sooner or later; instead they should try to address the problems as much as possible in a practical attitude. They should also be aware that suppression of all sorts of proper and legal efforts has no difference with placement of a powder-keg in front of themselves, which is something that a rational government should not do. The thought of stability as the top priority over anything else will end up dispossession of stability with “anything else” fragmented, the result of which is rather than a good thing to everyone.

Such conscience as Zuoren possesses, stems from his family education in addition to his own character and holding. His father, Tan Yinghua, was a prestigious historian at Sichuan University, and recognized in the research of Western History of Historical Science, Zang History and History of Tang Dynasty. His father was straight, and never changed his colors of being a scholar even though having encountered quite a few hardships. I was fortune to read two of his works, Proofreading of Reading, Eating and Goods in two Tang Dynasties, historical science and historians in 19 century, and amazed by his profoundness. Nurtured in such a family, although Zuoren’s work is on medical science, he has also touched upon writing of literature and history. Undeniably, the most important is that he inherited the spirit of his father, the awareness that intellectuals should shoulder his/her responsibility of being an intellectual.

Last June 4th, we were together donating blood to commemorate, you said with sadness, “next year, I could not donate anymore.” We were surprised and asked you why, you told us you have come to the last year of that one is able to donate—55, but your warm blood has been donated, in another way, to your beloved undertaking of freedom and democracy. A couple of days ago, a friend mentioned the pictures of us together on last June 4th were kept by you, we were about to take one from you and invite you to drink together; but expectedly you had already been “invited” by them into jail. Have you visited your parents’ tombs yet (by translator: a Chinese tradition usually in Tomb Sweeping day)? It’s hard to imagine the suffering you would bear, such a person of responsibility for both family and friends, if unable to sweep your parents’ tombs. It’s so sorrowful a thing that, close to the Tomb Sweeping days, one could not freely visit their parents’ tombs with family. We wish you come back early, then we could go sweep their tombs together, and let them be proud of what you have done for this country and this society; it’s also a type of gratitude I could and want to express to your father for benefiting from his knowledge.

Zuoren, you are suffering now, but you know that all your friends are helping you by all means; although our helps are limited, one thing you should know is that you are not fighting alone. The suppresser will never be a winner and terror could not be a final conqueror. We hope relevant parties don’t make another mistake and could cling to the spirit of seeking truth from facts, free Tan Zuoren as soon as possible. Never underestimate a heart in love and pursuit of freedom, not to mention thousands of millions of the same hearts.