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Popular Taiwan Writer Arrives in Beijing, Speaks at Universities

Prominent Taiwan writer, outspoken TV commentator, historian and lawmaker Li Ao arrived in Beijing September 19 for his first visit to the mainland in 56 years, China Daily reported.

He earned fame through his nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature because of his novel Beijing Fayuan Temple.

Waving his new passport before departing from Taipei, Li, 70, said he was eager to make his first trip since his family fled the mainland in 1949. Li said he was driven not by nostalgia but by curiosity, maintaining he did not come to see the old China he had lived in, but rather "to see the new China".

During the 12-day visit, he spoke to students at Shanghai's Fudan University, Tsinghua University and Peking University. In his wry speech at Peking University that drew frequent applause and laughter from his audience, Li told students they should cooperate with the Communist Party in a sober, rational and happy manner, and turn it to their service.