Chinese author, reporter, musician and poet imprisoned several times for exposing the dark side of the Communist Party, started conducting interviews which constitute the bulk of the book in the 1990s. A collection of twenty-eight conversations, the first Chinese edition was banned in China although it is available through file sharing websites. Exposing the perverse effects of a market economy, the stories of people on the margins of Chinese society - human traffickers, a professional mourner or a 103-year-old Buddhist abbot, are, as NY Times journalist Michael Meyer puts it written with empathy and forbearance but with a critical attitude towards some appalling human behaviours. Liao Yiwu escaped China in 2011 and now lives in Berlin.
In Poland the book was published by Czarne Publishing House under the title Prowadzący umarłych. Opowieści prawdziwe. Chiny z perspektywy nizin społecznych. The Kapuściński prize also honours the translators - Wen Huang for the Chinese-English translation and Agnieszka Pokojska for the English-Polish translation.
Ten books were chosen entered the final level of the Kapuściński Award, among them: Francisco Goldman's The Art Of Political Murder. Who Killed The Bishop, Raja Shehadeh's, Palestinian Walks. Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, Colin Thubron's In Siberia and the onyl Polish position Filip Springer's Miedziankę. Historię znikania.
The Ryszard Kapuściński Award, taking place for the 3rd time, honours the legacy of the prominent journalist, war reporter, and poet, the second most translated Polish author. In 2010 the winner was French journalist and war reporter Jean Hatzfeld for a report on Rwanda The Antelope Strategy and in 2011 the award was given to Svetlana Alexievich for her stories on women soldiers who fought during World War II, titled The War's Unwomanly Face.
Sources: culture.pl, NY Times
Editor: Marta Jazowska