Michael Berry (白睿文)
@bairuiwen.bsky.social
840 followers 180 following 170 posts
2023 Guggenheim Fellow; UCLA Prof of Chinese Lit & Film. Director, Center for Chinese Studies. Author and translator. https://michael-berry.com www.alc.ucla.edu/person/michael-berry/
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Reposted by Michael Berry (白睿文)
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
The deportation order is based on Vedam’s conviction for murder—a crime he did not actually commit and for which he’s now been wholly exonerated. He entered the US at 9 months old and was a legal permanent resident before his conviction. We are so, so, so far from the light of justice.
cmgiulini.bsky.social
After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him
Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.
www.miamiherald.com
Reposted by Michael Berry (白睿文)
yangyangcheng.bsky.social
I published two pieces on women in China this week! First, a review essay @chinabooksreview.com on two Fang Fang novels, Soft Burial & The Running Flame (tr. Michael Berry). Gendered oppression has persisted during the socialist period and capitalist reforms, despite the CCP's promise of liberation.
No Country for a Woman | China Books Review
Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite the Communist Party’s slogans about women’s liberation. Two novels by the Wuhan writer Fang Fang show how gendered oppression persis...
chinabooksreview.com
bairuiwen.bsky.social
Storm Under the Sun: An Afternoon with Louisa Wei
Monday, October 13, 2025
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Main Conference Room (room 11360)
UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library

《紅日風暴》
导演:魏時煜,彭小蓮
年代: 2007
片长: 137分钟
类型: 纪录片

www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/event/17...
bairuiwen.bsky.social
If living in a quarantined city, in the middle of a terrifying pandemic, receiving thousands of online attacks, facing untold political pressure, and direct threats of physical violence and even death, Fang Fang could stand unwavering, continuing to write and document her truth, what’s our excuse? 8
bairuiwen.bsky.social
We live in times where it takes a certain audacity to speak truth, revealing the lies can put one at personal risk, but I ask myself: 7
bairuiwen.bsky.social
Over the years, her work has continued to inspire me as a model of what true courage looks like.

As the United States heads toward an increasingly repressive place, I hope others will find light in Fang Fang’s words. 6
bairuiwen.bsky.social
All the while, Fang Fang has remained steadfast and unwavering, continuing to write and speak truth to power. In a world increasingly dominated by tweets, memes, AI generated shorts, and dwindling attention spans, she reminds us of the power literature yields. 5
bairuiwen.bsky.social
After the attacks on Wuhan Diary in 2020, Fang Fang’s back catalog of publications was pulled from bookshelves throughout China and magazines and newspapers refuse to run her essays, interviews or even print her name. 4
bairuiwen.bsky.social
Her novel Soft Burial was banned in 2017 and her lockdown memoir Wuhan Diary was targeted in 2020 —although it ended up being translated into 20 foreign languages editions around the world, there is still no published version of the book available in Chinese. 3
bairuiwen.bsky.social
For the past six years I have been working with Wuhan-based writer Fang Fang in an effort to amplify her voice as it has been silenced in her home country. 2
bairuiwen.bsky.social
“When an era sheds a speck of dust it might not seem like much, but when it falls upon
the shoulders of an individual it feels like a mountain.” — Fang Fang

This is Banned Books Week, an annual event that celebrates the work of writers whose voices have been suppressed. 1
Reposted by Michael Berry (白睿文)
yangyangcheng.bsky.social
"The Party’s tight control on historical narrative has rendered much of the pain afflicted in the name of liberation—or after liberation had ostensibly been achieved—unspeakable." For @chinabooksreview.com, I review two Fang Fang novels: Soft Burial and The Running Flame (tr. @bairuiwen.bsky.social)
No Country for a Woman | China Books Review
Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite the Communist Party’s slogans about women’s liberation. Two novels by the Wuhan writer Fang Fang show how gendered oppression persis...
chinabooksreview.com
bairuiwen.bsky.social
“Countless Yingzhis live among us, while the Zitaos of China are fading away with time. The tears of Chinese women, if unleashed, could drown a nation.” - Yangyang Cheng, from her review
bairuiwen.bsky.social
Yangyang Cheng is one of them most astute, insightful, and sensitive writers chronicling the political, cultural, and technological life of China today. I am so honored that she took the time to read and review these two novels by Fang Fang.

chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/09/f...
Reposted by Michael Berry (白睿文)
yangyangcheng.bsky.social
For @npr.org, I review Lou Ye's acclaimed Covid movie "An Unfinished Film," its courage in venturing into the forbidden, and limitations in what it seems unable or unwilling to confront. The Chinese people deserve better, more honest stories. The work remains unfinished.
www.npr.org/2025/10/04/g...
bairuiwen.bsky.social
Thanks to @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social and Rhoda Kwan for this thoughtful review!
lareviewofbooks.bsky.social
“When an enforced national amnesia buries historical wrongs, how should we inherit the memory of countless devastated lives?” Rhoda Kwan reviews two newly translated novels reckoning with China’s bloody past. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/howling-memories/