In 1989 Liao Yiwu wrote a poem about the massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The critical text was circulated underground and quickly became popular, after which the writer was sentenced to four years of prison and hard labour. For a Song and a Hundred Songs recounts his experiences during his incarceration. Liao Yiwu was forced to begin the manuscript from scratch several times. It was confiscated three times to prevent the writer from recording his experiences.

In striking, at times shocking fashion, For a Song and a Hundred Songs highlights the violence perpetrated against prisoners by the rulers during his period of incarceration. Notwithstanding the humane and sometimes selfless behaviour of the prisoners amongst each other, he does not conceal the cruelties, capriciousness and humiliations that the prisoners visited on each other either.

“The documentary passages in the book are imbued with poetic ones”, writes Herta Müller in her afterword to the German version. “This combination not only drills into the reader's head, it also touches the pit of the stomach. Liao Yiwu's language is physical because it was physically suffered.” (ed. trans.) (Mit diesseitiger Wut und jenseitigen Zärtlichkeiten in Für ein Lied und hundert Lieder, 2011)

The original version of the book was published in Hong Kong in 2000. It is no longer in print and is banned in China. Liao's German publisher postponed publication of the text to avoid endangering the author in his homeland. The German version only appeared once the writer had succeeded in leaving China. He had previously promised not to publish the book in the west.