ABSTRACT
This symposium includes essays that examine the nature of dissident activity against totalitarian regimes in both a Western and non-Western context.[1] The essays cover dissident activity in eastern Europe, Venezuela, and China. Liu compares especially with Vaclav Havel, the playwright whose leadership of Charter '77 inspired Liu to lead a similar effort with Charter '08. John McNerney focuses on Liu's anamnestic recovery and conversion of the person in his dissidence against the Chinese totalitarianism: "Xiaobo's odyssey can be understood in this way. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Perspectives on Political Science is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)