Li Jianglin (March 23, 1956 - December 24, 2024), a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, is a writer and historian. Born into a red family, her parents worked for the Fourth Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and became senior cadres after the founding of PRC. During the Cultural Revolution, Li's father was labeled a capitalist and exiled to a labor camp, and she was forced to separate herself from him and follow her mother to live in the countryside.
Li received her bachelor's degree in English from Fudan University in 1982, her master's degree from the Institute of American Literature at Shandong University in 1988. In the same year, she went to study in the United States, earning a master's degree in Jewish history from Brandeis University and a master's degree in librarianship from Queens College in New York. During her time in New York, she organized many cultural activities at the library in Flushing, making it a community hub for overseas Chinese. Li Jianglin was also the deputy secretary general of Independent Chinese PEN and a faculty member of Tiananmen University for Democracy.
She began to conduct independent research on Tibet in 2004, traveling many times to India and Nepal to interview the Dalai Lama and Tibetans in exile, and published many articles in
Ming Pao Monthly, Open Magazine, and
Chinese Human Rights Biweekly, among other magazines. She also wrote several books about Tibet, including
Tibet in Agony: Lhasa 1959 and
When the Iron Bird Flies: China's Secret War in Tibet. She also ran a
Chinese-language blog “Tibet: An Alternative Reality,” which contains more research materials on Tibet as well as articles by Li Jianglin.
On the Christmas Eve of 2024, Li passed away due to illness in her home in Georgia, United States.
