I started reading Feng 37 a few weeks ago for his endless translations of contemporary Chinese poetry, and being another Guangzhou blogger, he pretty quickly became one of those blogs I’d hope had something new for me to read every day. Early last week, I got an email from him about another blogger who wrote Beijing or Bust, 吴皓 Hao Wu, also on my avalanche of rss feeds, but I didn’t really know much about him, like he’s a documentary filmmaker, and the North East Asia Editor for Global Voices Online among other things.
He’s not writing there at the moment, and if you’re outside China, you can read why at Free Haowu, which you probably can’t even access with anonymous proxies in China, though the mirror hosted here is still open. I don’t usually write about political prisoners, so many other China bloggers do, and I usually don’t think I can add anything, and there’s just so many getting hauled in all the time, I’d have to change my blog name to “supernaut … i whore for dissident of the day”, but one of my closest friends is a filmmaker, a documentary filmmaker like Hao Wu, and I keep thinking it’s only a quirk of geography and arbitrary politics that separates the two.
The reason for Hao’s detention is unknown. One of the possibilities is that the authorities who detained Hao want to use him and his video footage to prosecute members of China’s underground Churches. Hao is an extremely principled individual, who his friends and family believe will resist such a plan. Therefore, we are very concerned about his mental and physical well-being.
On March 22nd it will be one month since filmmaker and Global Voices Northeast Asia Editor Hao Wu was detained without charge. We appeal to the Chinese government for Hao Wu’s immediate release!
What happened to Hao?
Hao Wu (Chinese name: 吴皓), a Chinese documentary filmmaker who lived in the U.S. between 1992 and 2004, was detained by the Beijing division of China’s State Security Bureau on the afternoon of Wednesday, Febuary 22, 2006. On that afternoon, Hao had met in Beijing with a congregation of a Christian church not recognized by the Chinese government, as part of the filming of his next documentary.
Hao had also been in phone contact with Gao Zhisheng, a lawyer specializing in human rights cases. Gao confirmed to one of Hao’s friends that the two had been in phone contact and planned to meet on Feb. 22, but that their meeting never took place after Gao advised against it. On Friday, Feb. 24, Hao’s editing equipment and several videotapes were removed from the apartment where he had been staying. Hao has been in touch his family since Feb. 22, but judging from the tone of the conversations, he wasn’t able to speak freely. One of Hao’s friends has been interrogated twice since his detention. Beijing’s Public Security Bureau (the police) has confirmed that Hao has been detained, but have declined to specify the charges against him.
The reason for Hao’s detention is unknown. One of the possibilities is that the authorities who detained Hao want to use him and his video footage to prosecute members of China’s underground Churches. Hao is an extremely principled individual, who his friends and family believe will resist such a plan. Therefore, we are very concerned about his mental and physical well-being.
More about Hao: From Scientist to Computer Guy to Filmmaker.
Hao began his filmmaking career in 2004, when he gave up his job as a senior product manager at Atlanta-based Earthlink Inc. and returned to China to film Beijing or Bust, a collage of interviews with U.S.-born ethnic Chinese who now live in China’s capital city. Before working for Earthlink, Hao worked as a product manager for Internet portal Excite from 2000 to 2001 in Redwood City, CA Before that, Hao had also worked as a strategic planning and product development director for Merchant Internet Group, an intern for American Express Co. and a molecular biologist with UCB Research Inc.
Hao earned an MBA degree from University of Michigan Business School in May 2000 and a Master of Science in molecular and cell biology in July, 1995 from Brandeis University, where he was awarded a full merit-based scholarship. Before studying in the U.S., Hao earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the China University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Anhui province in June, 1992.
Hao the Blogger.
Hao has also been an active blogger, writing as “Beijing Loafer” on his personal blog, Beijing or Bust, named after his film. Due to Chinese government internet blocking of his blog hosting service Blogger.com, he also has a mirror version of the site on MSN Spaces. In early February Hao began contributing as Northast Asia Editor to Global Voices Online, an international bloggers’ network hosted at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Writing under the pen name Tian Yi, Hao’s contributions aimed to bring citizens’ online voices from China and the rest of North East Asia to readers in the English-speaking world.
Why didn’t we speak out about his detention earlier?
Hao’s family and friends in China have deflected questions about his detention for the past month, as authorities in contact with people close to Hao have urged them not to publicize the case. There had been hope that his detention was only for a short period of time, in which case publicity would not have been helpful.
For more information…
Hao’s family and friends inside China do not want to be interviewed directly by the media at this time, and thus we will not provide journalists with their contact information. We have set up a website dedicated to Hao’s release at: www.freehaowu.org. It will be updated regularly with new information that emerges about Hao’s situation.
All further queries can be e-mailed to: freehaowu@gmail.com.
釋放吳皓！
三月22號就是影片製作人與Global Voices 東北亞編輯吳皓毫無理由被中共拘留滿一個月的日子。我們訴請中國政府立刻釋放吳皓！
吳皓發生了什麼事？
吳皓是一位中國的的紀錄片工作者，1992年至2004年都居住在美國，於2006年二月22日星期三下五遭到中國國家安全局的北京分局強行拘留。當天下午，吳皓與一群不被中國政府認可的基督教教會團體會面，為了拍攝他的下一部紀錄片。
吳皓與高智晟律師一直保持電話聯繫，高律師專長為人權訴訟案件。高律師與吳皓的一位朋友確認過，他們兩個曾經用電話聯繫過，並計畫於二月22日會面，然而因為高律師曾向吳皓提供建議，他們始終沒有見到面。在二月24號星期五，有人去吳皓的住所將他的編輯器材與多卷錄影帶都拿走。吳皓從二月22起就與家人保持聯繫，但是從他講話的語調來判斷，他無法自由發言。自從吳皓被拘留之後，他的一位朋友已經被審問兩次。北京的公共安全局（警察）承認吳皓遭到拘留，但是拒絕說明對他的指控為何。
吳皓遭到拘留的原因還不清楚。一個可能是當局打算利用他和他拍攝的影片去起訴中國地下教會的成員。吳皓是一個有高度道德操守的人，他的朋友與家人認為他不可能答應當局的要求。因此，我們非常擔憂他的心理與身體會不會因此受到威脅。
更多吳皓的資訊：從科學家到電腦玩家，再到影片工作者
吳皓從2004年開始拍攝影片，當時他放棄了在亞特蘭大Earthlink公司的資深產品部經理的職位，而回到中國拍攝Beijing or Bust，這是一部有關居住在北京的美籍華裔的訪談集錦。在進Earthlink工作之前，吳皓曾經於2000年至2001年在加州的Redwood城擔任網路入口網站Excite的產品部經理。而在這之前，吳皓也當過Merchant Internet Group的策略規劃與產品發展部主任，美國運通公司的實習員工，以及UCB研究機構的分子生物學家。
吳皓於2000年五月從密西根大學商學院獲得管理碩士學位，1995年七月從Brandeis大學獲得分子與細胞生物科學碩士學位，他在那獲得了全額獎學金。去美國唸書之前，吳皓於1992年六月從安徽省合肥縣的中國大學獲得了生物學的學士學位。
吳皓也是部落客
吳皓是一位極為活躍的部落客，以Beijing Loafer為化名，在以他拍攝的電影為名的個人部落格Beijing or Bust寫作。由於中國政府封鎖了他使用的部落格服務Blogger.com，他也在MSN Spaces成立了一個鏡像站。二月初，吳皓加入了Global Voices Online，成為東北亞區的編輯。Global Voices Online是一個國際部落客網絡，設立在哈佛法學院的伯克曼網路與社會中心。他透過筆名Tian Yi，將中國以及東北亞的公民聲音傳達給英語世界。
為甚麼我們不早一點公告他被拘留這件事？
吳皓在中國的家人與朋友不想在這時候接受媒體訪問，所以我們不會提供記者他們的聯絡資訊。我們為了讓吳皓早日被釋放，成立了一個網站，網址在：www.freehaowu.org。我們將持續更新這個網站，提供最新消息和吳皓的處境。
任何問題都請寄到：freehaowu@gmail.com.
