Ten years ago, near the end of 1999, the Chinese author Wang Lixiong received a package from a young woman of Tibetan origin named Tsering Woeser. It contained several hundred black-and-white negatives.
"The negatives are of pictures taken by my father, who died in 1991," she wrote in an accompanying letter. "They are of Tibet during the Cultural Revolution. I am aware of how extremely important they are, but I have no idea what use to make of them. I have never met you, but I have read what you have written about Tibet, and I present you with these negatives in the belief that you might be able to make some effective use of them."
Wang replied that he would be more than happy to help her, but that the process of bringing such a crucial witnessing of history into the public eye should not be left to someone like him, an ethnic Chinese, adding, "You should take this on yourself."