Eric Abrahamsen's opinion about the term "dissident writer" within the China context at The New Yorker, and his more recent op-ed in the New York Times The Real Censors of China, have not so far elicited any reaction from Paper Republic netizens.

Over at MCLC Resource Center, however, the discussion has been hotting up. Here is an excerpt from Nick Admussen's post Censorship and salesmanship at US book fair (7):

I’d like to carry forward the conversation of the last few days by registering deep disappointment with Eric Abrahamsen’s 6/17 editorial in the New York Times. The core of my problem is factual; as I’m sure many of you know, the Sichuan poet Liao Yiwu was detained and eventually given a four-year sentence for writing the poems 《黃城》, 《偶像》 , and especially 《大屠殺》, about the Tiananmen Massacre. This last was self-evidently unpublishable—for fear of the government censors who still hold sway—so he recorded an audiotape of the poem, and circulated that, which earned him a four-year jail sentence. His account of the abuse he endured during that prison sentence is well worth reading and has been translated as For a Song and a Hundred Songs. Liao is not the only poet silenced directly or indirectly by formal state punishment: poet Li Bifeng’s 12-year sentence was reported on by the NYT on Nov. 20, 2012 (page A6). Nurmuhemmet Yasin, a Uyghur poet and short story writer, hasn’t been seen for several years, and may well have died in jail. Eric is certainly welcome to say that he doesn’t like the work of these people, but he can’t pretend like they don’t exist. Because these are people who suffer greatly, his factual error is also a moral fault.

Bruce, June 19, 2015, 12:56a.m.