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Tuesday 28 June 2011

Worldwide Search of Volunteer Translators for Ran Yunfei

The Chinese government's crackdown on its intellectuals, dissidents and ordinary citizens has stepped up since the Jasmine Revolution that swept through MENA. Apart from Ai Weiwei, who was recently "released on bail" for "tax evasion crimes" after spending more than three months in detention, there are a lot more victims of this nationwide crackdown, many of them are little known in the West. Yet every one of them deserves the same level of attention from international community as Ai Weiwei, because, as He Qinglian, a prominent Chinese scholar living in exile in the US, has put it, "being a political oppositionist [in China] remains a dangerous matter, in that such people, once came under the authorities’ watchful eyes, would not only lose all their social status and job opportunities; their dignity would also be severely trampled upon."

One of these victims is Ran Yunfei, a prominent intellectual in Sichuan, China. He openly criticized the Chinese government for its roles in the mass collaspe of Tofu-dreg schools in Sichuan Quake in 2008, the persecution of Tan Zuoren, the melamine-tainted milk scandal, Zhao Lianhai and other public issues in China.

On the eve of the first Jasmine gathering in February 19, 2011, Ran was detained under the charge of "suspected of subversion of state power". When the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate approved his arrest later on, the charge was changed to "suspected of inciting subversion of state power".

Ran Yunfei has published 495 articles in his own blog. To help the world know more about this independent writer and critic, who was recognized as one of the one hundred Chinese public intellectual in 2008, we have selected thirty-three of his articles to translate into English. Since our first language is not English, we are now appealing to the English world to help with the proofread process of the translated articles. Interested party please email to trans.ranyf@gmail.com. We appreciate your help.

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