Local hero
平民英雄

Jan 23rd 2013, 4:52 by The Economist | CHENGDU

LIU XIAOBO, China’s first non-Tibetan to wear the laurel of a Nobel peace prize, languishes quietly in prison and the artist known as Ai Weiwei remains better known abroad than at home. But a number of writers and activists whose names are not so famous overseas have gained a following within China by daring to tweak the tail of the Communist Party.

中国第一位获得诺贝尔和平奖的非藏族人士刘晓波遭囚禁，静度余生，著名艺术家艾未未在国内的知名度远不及在国外的知名度。但是许多不为国外所熟知得作家和积极份子敢于揭共产党所短，在国内得到许多人的支持。

Perhaps chief among them would be a former sports writer, Li Chengpeng. Mr Li has recently stirred up a storm with a new book, a collection of sharp essays on his country’s social ills, titled “Everybody in the World Knows”. During his book tour in January he was adored by fans, physically attacked by enemies and finally silenced by the Chinese authorities. 也许这些人的主要人物是前体育记者李承鹏，他的新书《全世界人民都知道》是一部辛辣批判国家的社会弊病的杂文集，在最近弄得满城风雨。在一月的新书签售活动中，李承鹏受其粉丝追捧，遭受其反对者掌掴并被官方禁言。

Thousands of supporters turned out to meet the author in Chengdu, Beijing and Shenzhen. On January 12th, just before he appeared at his book signing in Chengdu, Mr Li took stock of the rules that had been laid down for the aunch and announced to his 6.7m followers on Sina Weibo, China’s homegrown version of Twitter: “I am not allowed to speak, not allowed to give opening remarks, I am not even allowed to say ‘Happy New Year’ or ‘Thank you all’.” Instead he wore a black mask over his mouth and the words “I love you all” written on his shirt. The crowd roared its approval, and snapped up copies of his book by the armload.

数千支持者在成都，北京和深圳参加他的签售会。1月·12日，在他四川签售活动之前，李仔细估量了上级对这次签售活动所下达的命令并在微博（中国版本的推特）上对其670万关注者说：“不准我说话，不准我致开场白，连“新年好，谢谢你们”也不准说。”他戴着黑色的口罩，在其衬衫上写上“我爱你们”。在场的群众欢呼雀跃，抢购李的新书。

His reception in Beijing went less smoothly. One self-proclaimed Maoist hurled a kitchen knife at him and another punched him in the face. Some Maoists regard him as a traitor for his criticism of the Communist Party. Since the knife-throwing incident, and then further cries of treason at the book signing in Shenzhen, the police have chosen to rein in Mr Li. He texted at least one reporter to explain that he was being taken away for a chat. An appearance in Guangzhou was cancelled suddenly.

他的北京签售也并非顺利。一位自称“毛派”人士向李扔了一把菜刀，某人对李脸上“赠”与一掌掴。李承鹏因批判共产党，一些“毛派”人士将其视为“汉奸”。自深圳新书签售会上的掷刀事件以及随即的“卖国贼”呼声，警方已对李进行约束，李对相关记者证实他被警方带走就此事做笔录，广州签售会也随即取消。

Li Chengpeng is no stranger to threats and government pressure. Working as a sportswriter from the early 1990s to 2009, he chose to focus his reporting on rampant corruption, which culminated in a book called “Chinese Football: The Inside Story”, published in January 2010. It detailed match-fixing and bribery across the country and brought down the wrath of incensed trainers, “patriotic readers” and government censors. Chen Yiming, trainer of the Chongqing Lifan club, brought a suit against Mr Li in 2009 which succeeded in incurring fines of 200,000 yuan ($32,000) and the demand that the published reporting be retracted publicly. Mr Li refused and in December 2012 a Guangzhou court overturned the verdict on appeal. Mr Li was found not guilty of libel, and his articles were judged to be “non-damaging”. Mr Chen, the trainer, was forced to pay the court’s costs.

李承鹏对威胁和政府的施压已是司空见惯。他在90年代初期至2009年期间从事体育专栏报道工作，之后专注报道泛滥猖獗的腐败问题，其书名为《中国足球内幕》，并在2010年1月出版，详细介绍了全国假球和贿赂等黑幕，以及打击了足球教练员的嚣张气焰。重庆力帆俱乐部教练陈亦明（音译）在2009年对李提起诉讼，成功胜诉，法院判决李赔偿20万（3.2万美元）以及召回发表的足球报道，李承鹏拒绝接受并上诉，2012年12月广州一家法院推翻这一判决。李承鹏被判无罪，其文章也被判定对社会没有危害。教练员陈不得不支付法庭费用。

Seasoned at playing the provocateur, Mr Li moved from reporting on sport to writing essays on politics and society soon after the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, which killed more than 80,000 people. His writing on the struggles of common people after the disaster brought his work to a whole new audience of internet-savvy young Chinese. He went on to publish a novel in 2011, “Li Kele Protests Demolitions”. Mr Li’s “Li Kele” was an immediate hit; the descriptions of ordinary people who united together to fight faceless forces and venality propelled the writer into the arms of a more organized new audience: China’s advocates for social reform.

李承鹏在发起“挑衅活动”方面有丰富的阅历，他以前是报道体育新闻，自2008年四川地震（死亡人数超过8万）之后不久，他开始写有关政治方面的文章。对老百姓灾后重建的文章吸引了网络上一批全新的年轻人。2011年，他出版了一本小说《李可乐抗拆记》，这本书立即得到强烈反响，小说中关于平民老百姓联合反抗幕后势力以及腐败问题的描绘使作者融入一个更有组织的新读者群：中国社会改革的提倡者。

Later that year Mr Li announced that he would be running for public office in Chengdu as an independent. Although his election campaign was never allowed to get under way (candidates for office are carefully screened by the Communist Party and eventually Mr Li failed his background check), he gained a new degree of credibility. Here, it seemed, was a man who would back up his words with actions.

此后，李承鹏宣布将以无党派身份竞选成都公职，虽然他的竞选活动尚未允许启动（竞选公职的候选人需经过共产党的精心筛选，李最终未能通过背景调查），但是他的公信力获得提高，还有一个人似乎用行动来支持李的文章。

At the book launch in Chengdu, an elderly man named Liu Shahe sat behind Mr Li. Mr Liu is one of the signatories of Charter 08, the document demanding a list political reforms that Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel laureate, was jailed for drafting. Mr Li tweeted Mr Liu’s words to him—“You man of words, just keep writing”—and said the encouragement from the older man had reduced him to tears.

在成都签售会上，一位老人站在李的身后，老人名叫流沙河，是《08宪章》的其中一名签署者，该文书要求一系列政治改革，诺贝尔奖获得者刘晓波因起草该文书被囚禁。李在微博上写上刘对他所说的话-“文人，写下去即是胜利”–称这位老人的鼓励让他潸然泪下。

Since that relatively thunderous clap, Mr Li seems to be trying to turn his volume down a notch. In a recent post to his blog, Li said he would be doing small events only, with friends and close supporters. He urged his fans to pay attention to “bigger issues like corruption, food safety and pollution” and not focus so much on the man and his book.

自这件事传得沸沸扬扬以来，李似乎试图低调行事。他在最近的一篇博文中说他将和朋友以及联系密切的支持者只做做小事，他敦促粉丝们关注更大的问题，如腐败，食品安全，污染问题等，而不是过多集中在他本人和这本书上。