Tsering Woeser

Woeser

Woeser (also written Öser; full name: Tsering Woeser; Tibetan: ཚེ་རིང་འོད་ཟེར་, Wylie: tshe-ring 'od-zer; Chinese: 唯色; pinyin: Wéisè, Han name Chéng Wénsà 程文萨; born 1966) is a Tibetan poet and essayist in China.

Biography

Woeser, a quarter-Han and three quarters-Tibetan, was born in Lhasa. Her grandfather was an officer in the Nationalist Army of the Kuomintang and her father was a high rank Army officer in the People's Liberation Army. When she was a small child, her family relocated to the Kham area of western Sichuan province. In 1988, she graduated from Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu with a degree in Chinese literature. She worked as a reporter in Kardzé and later in Lhasa and has lived in Beijing since 2003 as a result of political problems. Woeser is married to Wang Lixiong, a renowned author who frequently writes about Tibet. According to Reporters sans frontières, "Woeser is one of the few Tibetan authors and poets to write in Chinese."

Career

Woeser is the author of a book, Notes on Tibet (西藏笔记; Xīzàng Bǐjì). The Tibet Information Network quotes unnamed sources that the book was banned by the government around September 2003.

According to UNPO, shortly after the alleged ban Woeser was also fired from her job and lost her status with her work unit. Radio Free Asia reported that she continued to post a variety of poems and articles to her two blogs: Maroon Map (绛红色的地图, oser.tibetcul.net), which, according to the author, was visited primarily by Tibetans, and the Woeser blog (blog.daqi.com/weise), which was visited primarily by those of Han ethnicity. According to RFA, on July 28, 2006, both blogs were closed by order of the government, apparently in response to postings in which she expressed birthday greetings to the Dalai Lama and touched on other sensitive topics. Woeser stated that she would continue writing and speaking.

During the Tibetan unrest of 2008, Woeser and her husband were put under house arrest after speaking to reporters. In December 2008 Woeser was one of the original 303 signatories to Charter 08, now joined by thousands more. In July 2009 Woeser and her husband were one of more than 100 signatories to a petition asking Chinese authorities to released detained ethnic-Uyghur professor of economics Ilham Tohti.

Awards

• In 2007, Tsering Woeser was granted with the Norwegian Authors Union awards Freedom of Expression Prize.
• In 2007, she was also granted with the freedom of speech medal by the Association of Tibetan Journalists.
• In 2010, International Women's Media Foundation granted her with the Courage in Journalism Awards.
• In 2011, Prince Claus Awards, theme Breaking taboos

Works

• 2010 "Mémoire interdite. Témoignages sur la Révolution culturelle au Tibet", éd. Bleu de Chine, trad. Li Zhang & Bernard Bourrit.
• Tibet's True Heart: Selected Poems, trans. A. E. Clark (Dobbs Ferry, Ragged Banner Press 2008) ISBN 9780981698908.
• Shājié. Sishi nian de jiyi jinqu 《杀劫》(Forbidden memory. Tibet during the Cultural Revolution) (Taiwan, Dàkuài wénhuà 大块文化 2006), ISBN 9867291840.
• Xīzàng Bǐjì 《西藏笔记》 (Guangzhou, Huāchéng chūbǎnshè 花城出版社 2003), ISBN 7536038313. Also published in Taiwan as Míng wéi Xīzàng de shī 《名为西藏的诗》 (Taiwan, Dàkuài wénhuà 大块文化 2006), ISBN 9867291905.
• Bākuò Jiē de cāngsāng 八廓街的沧桑, in: Jīn Zhìguó 金志国 (ed.): Xīzàng dāngdài lǚxíngjì 西藏当代旅行记 (Lhasa, Xīzàng rénmín chūbǎnshè 西藏人民出版社 2004), ISBN 7-223-01587-X.
• Jiànghóngsè de Nímǎ Cìrén 绛红色的尼玛次仁, in: Mǎ Míngbó 马明博, Xiāo Yáo 肖瑶 (eds.): Wénhuà míngjiā huà fóyuán 文化名家话佛缘 (Beijing, Zhōngguó dàng'àn chūbǎnshè 中国档案出版社 2004), ISBN 7801664159.* Jiànghóngsè de dìtú 《绛红色的地图》 (Taiwan, Shíyīng chūbǎnshè 时英出版社 2003), ISBN 9867762045; (Beijing, Zhōngguó lǚyóu chūbǎnshè 中国旅游出版社 2004), ISBN 7503222476.
• Xīzàng zài shàng 《西藏在上》(Xining, Qīnghǎi rénmín chūbǎnshè 青海人民出版社 1999).

External links

• “They Have Guns, and I, a Pen”: Highly Valuable New Source on the Tibetan Rebellion
• Woeser's blog
• High Peaks Pure Earth Review of "Tibet's True Heart - Selected Poems by Woeser"
• English translations of writings by Woeser
• An Eye from History and Reality — Woeser and the Story of Tibet, In-depth interview with Woeser about her development as a writer and poet
• Introduction to Woeser, See "Secret Tibet" on this web page, from the website Tibet Writes
• An Analysis of the Woeser Incident by Wang Lixiong
• Article from Woeser about the film Dreaming Lhasa
• Lone Tibetan Voice, Intent on Speaking Out
• Le Tibet Invisible