Ranging from a discussion with Bangladeshi political cartoonist Arifur Rahman to an interview with Creek Indian poet and musician Joy Harjo, in 2013 Sampsonia Way continued its mission of sharing the essential voices of writers, journalists, and artists from around the world.
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A look at Ai Weiwei – The Fake Case, a new documentary produced and directed by Danish filmmaker Andreas Johnsen. Chronicling Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s life from 2009-2012, it follows his release from solitary confinement and subsequent placement under house arrest in 2011.
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Independent Chinese PEN Center president, Tienchi Martin-Liao, reflects on the five-year anniversary of imprisonment of dissident writer and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, his wife’s prolonged, Kafkaesque house arrest, the calls for solidarity from Chinese human rights activists, and the power of words.
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On November 15, the Chinese Communist Party finally abolished its notorious system of labor camps called laojiao (reeducation through labor). While Chinese human rights activists welcome the news, they also called for the banning of ‘black jails and other rogue camouflaged measures of laojiao.’
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The widely criticized suspension last week of Bloomberg New’s Hong Kong-based journalist Michael Forsythe sparks discussion of alleged censorship of reporters and articles in China. In this video, James Fallows, Demetri Sevastopulo and discuss the issue with CNN’s Eric Deggans.
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In China, according to Tienchi Martin-Liao, journalists face two major problems: censorship from officials who issue instructions on how and whether or not to report a story, and corruption in the form of “red envelopes” (bribes), which have become many journalists’ main source of income.
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“I believe that 1942 is the closest that you can get to an Oscar-level film for China because of the censorship.” In this interview, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg had a chance to ask the celebrated writer/director Feng Xiaogang about censorship in China, as well as his life and career.
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