Two years have passed since the White Paper Movement swept across China - a historical moment of collective defiance ignited by Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-COVID policy. Public outrage - fuelled by years of inhumane lockdowns and mounting despair - erupted with the tragic deaths of 10 individuals in the November 24th Urumqi fire. Thousands of individuals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, took to the streets and raised up blank sheets of paper. The message to authorities was clear: this was a condemnation of the CCP's system of censorship; a demand for accountability, and a plea for dignity in a state which silences and suffocates dissent.
Two years later, we are reminded that even under the weight of repression and enforced silence, the yearning for freedom and dignity burns brightly. No one who dares to stand is ever truly alone.
Liu Jianshu’s poem, below, channels the quiet power of the White Paper Movement - weaving the courage, grief and yearning of a people into a call for hope and renewal.
Liu Jianshu | Tonight, I Raise a Blank Sheet of Paper
Tonight, my love burns fiercely.
I love those from distant horizons, and those who stand by my side.
I love myself.
Behold, my freedom! How beautiful it is.
Tonight, my strength blazes.
I want to run; to cry out to the heavens,
I want to live.
For the first time, I dare to raise a blank sheet of paper.
I raise this blank sheet of paper—
And a window opens upon my chest.
Has the fire roaring in my heart illuminated you,
My fellow citizens, my compatriots?
I raise this blank sheet of paper—
A sky, clear and boundless.
Has the fresh breeze swept away the shadows and the gloom,
My fellow citizens, my compatriots?
I raise this blank sheet of paper—
A handful of snow from the Tianshan Mountains.
Has its meltwater quenched your parched lips,
My fellow citizens, my compatriots?
I raise this blank sheet of paper—
A patch of untainted earth.
Can you rebuild your home upon it,
My fellow citizens, my compatriots?
I raise this blank sheet of paper—
A map of the motherland.
Have you memorized the sites of our disasters and our sorrows,
My fellow citizens, my compatriots?
This is a handkerchief,
With which I wipe the ashes from the faces of our dead.
This is a mirror,
Reflecting the hypocrisy barely concealed behind 'greatness'.
This is a ballot, And I choose the future, not regression to the past.
This is my diploma—
I have learned to cry out in the silence,
To find courage amidst fear.
This is my charter, my manifesto, my declaration of rights.
I release myself from bondage,
And grant myself my inalienable freedoms.
This is a brick pulled loose from walls towering above us.
This is the portrait of a tyrant.
This is paper money to mourn a reign of terror.
Tomorrow, I will paint the colors of freedom
Across this blank sheet.
This paper will shine, as vibrant and colorful as our lives.
But tonight, I raise only a blank sheet of paper—
Let this eternal flame pierce the darkness which lies ahead.
