Page 12 - Tom Steyer Issue

competitions with her sister under a persimmon tree on the east side of the courtyard. In winter, when they could easily get sick and suffer persistent coughs, they would spend time reading and doing homework inside the house, with a wooden board tucked in between two pillows to be their makeshift desk.
At the northeast corner of the house stood a cupboard half a man tall, painted with a panda eating bamboo. Inside there was a black leather case containing medical records from many hospitals in Beijing.
Without ever leaving the old premises, Xia grew up reciting ancient classical poetry and reading modern prose thanks to a steady supply of newspapers, poetry magazines, and books her father bought. Little did she know how these writings would light up her life in the future.
Writing is an inevitability
The sisters, Xia and Ning, both were diagnosed with congenital spinal muscular atrophy about one year after they were born.
By the time they reached the school age, no school accepted them. Their parents had to buy the textbooks and teach them at home. “We always thought that one day we could go to school.” Back in those days when
they were still able to hold pens, they learned faster than their peers in school. When they reached adolescence, what would normally have been growth spurs became illness spells. The more they fell ill, the weaker their bodies would be. This went on until they could no longer sit upright on their own.
Those teary red eyes of the loved ones, Xia confronted so many times that she was able to hold her tears back, despite the emotional pangs she suffered. Colds, persis- tent high fevers, shallow breaths...a predetermined fate of pains and sufferings had fallen upon the sisters. “My sister and I were like furniture in the house. Our wheel- chairs were placed precisely along the west wall so that we would not be in the way while it was easier for us to see people walking in.”
At 14 Xia came upon a new world - the poetry maga- zines to which her father subscribed. She weaned her- self off children’s literature and began to read a broad spectrum of literary works, from old-style poetry to modern prose writings to lyrics to novels. She had a bookcase full of Friedrich Nietzsche, Wang Guozhen, Socrates, Rogers.... On good days she would read for seven or eight hours on end and would love to share her ideas with her sister. Sometimes both of them found it hard to fall asleep at night when they had exciting dis- cussions.
“I must speak out with faith and fortitude everything
Liu Xia has more than 600 pieces of literary works published, totaling more than 300,000 words.
12 ABILITY