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A Chinese artist who, for decades, satirized Chinese history and its ruling communist party in his sculptures goes on trial this week. He's been accused of a relatively new crime, slandering heroes and martyrs of the Chinese Communist Party. NPR's Emily Feng has been collecting weekly audio diaries from his most public advocate, his wife.
ZHAO YALIANG: (Speaking Mandarin).
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Zhao Yaliang reads aloud from one of the many letters her husband, the artist Gao Zhen, has written for their young son.
ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
FENG: "I hope I can finish my work and see you soon," he writes. The couple has not told their son he's in prison. Gao Zhen, now 69 years old, is famous for his sculptures, like one of seven Chairman Maos, each pointing a rifle at the figure of Jesus Christ. That's been shown internationally but not in China. Or his and his brother's Miss Mao series, balloon-like busts resembling Mao but with large breasts. Sensing the political wind shifting under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Gao had moved to the U.S. during the COVID pandemic.
ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
FENG: "Art is no crime," Zhao says. But Gao, her husband, was arrested in China while visiting family in 2024, and Zhao and her son are still under an exit ban, forbidden from leaving China. His charge of slandering heroes and martyrs was created in 2021, and it is being applied retroactively to Gao's art. It's an update to China's criminal code penalizing infringements on, quote, "the reputation and honor of revolutionary heroes of China," part of a nationalist push to sanctify communist history. In prison, Gao still makes art. He cuts intricate paper art from colored scraps of paper, and he writes letters.
ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
FENG: "He tells me not to live in tragedy," Zhao says. In the last decade, China has arrested hundreds of human rights lawyers and activists, mostly men, leaving their wives to advocate for them. Zhao now joins their ranks.
ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
FENG: She's found Gao a lawyer and helped organize his court documents. If found guilty, Gao faces up to three years in prison. She's also put up a facade of normalcy for their son.
ZHAO: (Speaking Mandarin).
FENG: Zhao reads from another one of the letters Gao wrote his son. He writes about raising his son to be an accomplished person. "Every person," Zhao says, "must live their life with purpose." Emily Feng, NPR News.
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