The struggle for human rights has been an ongoing battle throughout history. Many heroes, like Martin Luther King Jr., are justly lauded for their work. But for each person we celebrate, there are thousands of forgotten heroes who also stood up to oppression and gave their lives to make the world a better place.
Lin Zhao, who was born January 23, 1932, was a student at Peking University in China when she was imprisoned for speaking out on behalf of students who were being persecuted during Chairman Mao Zedong’s Anti-Rightist Movement in the late 1950s. Lin was a writer who wrote articles and poems. And when her captors forbade her to use pens, she used a hairpin dipped in her own blood to write on the walls of her cell.
On April 29, 1968 the People’s Republic of China executed Lin Zhao by gunshot.
With memory of her seemingly lost to history, filmmaker and independent historian Hu Jie encountered her story. And he quit his job so he could investigate Lin’s struggle for civil rights and bring her story alive in the documentary, “Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul” (Sometimes translated as “In Search of Lin Zhao’s Soul.”
The movie, released in 2012, won Best Film at the Sunshine Chinese Documentary Film Festival. You may watch this moving documentary about Lin Zhao in its entirety in the link below, which includes English subtitles.
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