Famed Chinese dissident reaching new audiences

Renowned Chinese author Guan Yuqian (關愚謙), of Germany's Hamburg University, met readers in Taipei yesterday to unveil his newly published autobiography entitled Lang: A Traitor's Life.

Permission was granted for the book to be published in China last year. It turned out to be a bestseller, not only because the story is fascinatingly written, but also because of the author's legendary life.

Guan, 72, who escaped from the Cultural Revolution and was labeled a traitor by the "New China" government, autographed copies of his new book during a debut party held at an Eslite Bookstore in Taipei.

The Chinese autobiography was written by Guan based on his own memoirs, entitled Living Under Two Skies, which was written in German and published in Switzerland in 2001.

The book -- depicting China's traumas during the Cultural Revolution and his own academic life in Germany after he drifted from the East to the West and was granted political asylum -- has resonated widely throughout the German-speaking world and Europe since its publication.

Guan's books are intriguing partly because of his legendary life. He is a descendant of Guan Tianpei (關天培), China's first navy admiral based in Guangdong who was killed during the Opium War against the British in the mid-19th century.

Guan's father, Guan Xibing (關錫斌), was one of the few Chinese students who studied in France in the late 1890s, later serving in the "New China" government as a secretary at the State Council.

During the period of the anti-rightist struggle, Guan was demoted and transferred to the remote Qinghai area in western China where he worked for three years as a news cameraman.

Moving back to Beijing, he worked at the foreign ministry as an official in charge of producing and issuing passports.

Using a fake passport that he produced himself, Guan fled China and drifted to Egypt where he was imprisoned for more than a year. It was during this time that Guan's name appeared in newspapers because of the diplomatic controversies surrounding him.

Guan was then granted political asylum by the German government. At the age of 38, he began to study German, obtaining his doctorate from Hamburg University eight years later at the age of 46. He has been teaching at the prestigious university since that time.

His current visit in Taipei is a side trip in his ongoing lecture tour of Southeast Asia, where he has been speaking exclusively on the political and economic prospects of Europe and the US in the event of the outbreak of war in Iraq.

The new book is published in traditional Chinese characters by the Aquarius Publishing Company, who is sponsoring the lecture tour.