I will be a person

我要作人 (wǒ yào zuò rén): I will be a person

Tan Zuoren (谭作人), whose given name literally means “be a person” is a writer and environmentalist who is currently serving a five year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” because of his activities relating to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

After Tan’s arrest, a popular refrain on Twitter was “The soul of a civil society is moral conscience and courage. I am not afraid! I will not be a lone spirit, and I will not be a living monument; I will be a person!” (良心與勇氣，是公民社會之魂，我不害怕了！我不作幽靈，不作活碑，我要作人！)

The phrase, “I will be a person” has the same ring to it in Chinese as “I will be a man” does in English – however without the gender specific connotations.

The phrase is also reminiscent of a poem written by Bei Dao, a poet often quoted by students during the Tiananmen Square Incident. Bei Dao famously wrote:

Perhaps the final hour is come

I have left no testament

Only a pen, for my mother

I am no hero

In an age without heroes

I just want to be a man

The still horizon Divides the ranks of the living and the dead I can only choose the sky I will not kneel on the ground Allowing the executioners to look tall The better to obstruct the wind of freedom

From star-like bullet holes shall flow A blood-red dawn

也许最后的时刻到了 我没有留下遗嘱 只留下笔，给我的母亲 我并不是英雄 在没有英雄的年代里， 我只想做一个人。

宁静的地平线 分开了生者和死者的行列 我只能选择天空 决不跪在地上 以显出刽子手们的高大 好阻挡自由的风

从星星的弹空里 将流出血红的黎明