Chen Guangcheng, known to many as 'the barefoot lawyer,' was born in the village of Dongshigu in 1971. Blind since infancy, illiterate until his late teens, he nonetheless taught himself law and became a fiery advocate for tens of thousands of Chinese who had no voice. His escape from inhuman house arrest in China made international headlines, as did his flight to the American embassy in Beijing. In 2012 he became a student at New York University Law School; since 2013 he has been a senior research fellow at Catholic University, the Witherspoon Institute, and the Lantos Foundation. He now lives with his wife and two children in the Washington, D.C. area.
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“[Chen’s] story is a reminder that the desire for basic human rights . . . arises from the deep well of the human spirit.”—The New York Times Book Review It was like a scene out of a thriller: One night in April 2012, China’s most famous poli... SEE MORE