Ai grew up in the considerably northwest of China, where he lived underneath harsh conditions because of to his father's exile. The signatories incorporate Ivan Klíma, Jiří Gruša, Jáchym Topol, Elfriede Jelinek, Adam Michnik, Adam Zagajewski, Helmuth Frauendorfer Bei Ling (Chinese:贝岭), a Chinese poet in exile drafted and also signed the open up letter.