Career
Mississippi Liu prefers to lead the solitary life of an intellectual. However, being the wife of an oft-imprisoned activist, she has been forced to act as his proxy in the public arena. She has been described as her husband"s "most important link to the outside world." Because she is the wife of one of China"s most prominent human rights advocates, she also personally experiences pressures from Chinese authorities for publicly voicing opinions.
Since his arrest, she has lived under constant surveillance.
Despite the pressures, she attempts to retain a life of normality. After initially heeding her pleas, he went forward anyway, immersing himself for three years drafting and re-drafting the document, which he later persuaded more than 300 prominent workers, Chinese Communist Party members, and intellectuals, to sign.
The document was later "signed" by 10,000 users on the Internet. After visiting him, however, she was placed under house arrest and her mobile number deactivated.
On April 23, 2013, she was allowed out to see her brother"s trial.
Many feel that the trial was politically motivated. They said that the purported dispute had been resolved, but was brought back into court for some reason. Some assert that this trial is therefore an act of attempted intimidation by the government in order to silence Liu Xia even further.
During her brief stint out of her house, where she is allowed no internet, no phone, and few visitors, she found a welcoming crowd waiting for her.
She shouted to them, "Tell everybody that I"m not free". "I love you. I miss you.".
And she blew kisses. On November 19, 2013, she filed an appeal for Liu Xiaobo"s retrial.
A move that"s been called "extraordinary" because the action could refocus the world"s attention on China"s human rights record. (See List of prisons in Liaoning)
lieutenant is the only exhibition of Liu Xia"s photographic work in the United States.