When Woeser was a small child, her family moved to the Kham area of western Sichuan province. In 1988, she graduated from Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu with a degree in Chineseliterature. She worked as a reporter in Kardzé and later worked in Lhasa. In 2003, she moved to Beijing because of political problems. Woeser is married to Wang Lixiong, a famous author. Lixiong often writes about Tibet. According to Reporters sans frontières, "Woeser is one of the few Tibetan authors and poets to write in Chinese."[1] Because the government refused to give Woeser a passport, Woeser sued the government.[2]
Woeser wrote a book, Notes on Tibet (西藏笔记; Xīzàng Bǐjì). According to the Tibet Information Network, unnamed sources say that the government banned the book about September 2003.[3] According to UNPO, Woeser lost her job shortly after the ban.[4]Radio Free Asia said that she continued to write poems and articles on her two blogs: Maroon Map (绛红色的地图, oser.tibetcul.net), which, according to the author, was visited mostly by Tibetans, and the Woeser blog (blog.daqi.com/weise), which was visited mostly by those of Han ethnicity. According to RFA, on July 28, 2006, both blogs were closed by the government. The blogs were probably closed because she wrote birthday greetings to the Dalai Lama and wrote about other sensitive topics. Woeser said that she would continue to write and to speak.[5]
During the Tibetan unrest of 2008, Woeser and her husband were put under house arrest after they spoke to reporters.[6] In December 2008, Woeser and her husband were among the first of the original 303 people to sign Charter 08,[7][8] Now, thousands more have signed it.[9]Liu Xiaobo, the author of Charter 08, went to prison for 11 years. He received the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.[10] In July 2009, Woeser and her husband, along with more than 100 other people, signed a petition for the Chinese govenrmnent to free ethnic-Uyghurprofessor of economicsIlham Tohti.[11] When Woeser won the Prince Claus Awards in 2011, the government did not permit her to receive the prize in the Dutch embassy.[12]
2011 Video of award to Tsering Woeser by the DutchPrince Claus FundXīzàng zài shàng 《西藏在上》(Live Tibet) (Xining, Qīnghǎi rénmín chūbǎnshè 青海人民出版社 1999), Woeser's first poetry edition
Xīzàng Bǐjì 《西藏笔记》(Notes on Tibet) (Guangzhou, Huāchéng chūbǎnshè 花城出版社 2003), ISBN7-5360-3831-3. Also published in Taiwan as Míng wéi Xīzàng de shī 《名为西藏的诗》 (Taiwan, Dàkuài wénhuà 大块文化 2006), ISBN986-7291-90-5.
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