Who this record covers
杨立才 (Yang Licai), nicknamed 老羊 ("Old Yang"), is an artist from Panshan County, Liaoning province. A freelance audio-visual artist, he opened a studio and shop in Beijing's 798 art district in the 1990s, founded the independent music-scene studio known as the Sugar Jar Sound Field (白糖罐声场）, headed the Sugar Jar Studio, and launched a "China contemporary music archive" project. He signed Charter 08, the 2008 pro-democracy manifesto, and has been described as a long-term target of surveillance and house arrest. On December 13, 2019, he was seized from his rented room in Shenzhen by police from Panjin, Liaoning, and placed under criminal detention on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.
Earlier encounters with the authorities
On December 25, 2009, when the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court sentenced Liu Xiaobo to 11 years, Yang went to the courthouse to show support and offer to serve the sentence alongside him; police took him to the Babaoshan station, recorded a statement, and released him after several hours. In March 2010 he was placed under round-the-clock surveillance and house arrest around the Qingming festival period. In May 2010, after a dispute over a generator at his 798 studio, he was held for 10 days of administrative detention for obstructing police work.
The 2019 detention
Yang had moved to Shenzhen to make a living. On December 13, 2019, Panjin city police took him from his rented room and searched the premises, seizing his computers. He was placed under criminal detention on suspicion of 寻衅滋事罪 (picking quarrels and provoking trouble). People close to him believe the detention was linked to his online posts, including comments about Hong Kong's anti-extradition protests; PEN America, which demanded his immediate release, described the detention as punishment for his alleged online support of the Hong Kong protests. A lawyer met him at the Panjin County Detention Center. His family asked for a low profile, so few further details have emerged.
Recorded status
No sentence has been recorded for him — the detention is documented as criminal detention without trial, consistent with the roster's "detained without trial" classification. The latest dated custody evidence places him at the Panjin County Detention Center in reports from December 2019 through February 2020. No later dated source confirms his current situation. This page does not assert where he is held today or whether he has been released.
Identification method
The Issue 131 roster lists "Yang Licai" in its Liaoning "detained without trial" group but gives no case detail. An independent prisoners-of-conscience database record gives the Chinese name 杨立才 with the romanization "YANG LI CAI," identifies him as a Panshan County, Liaoning native detained in Panjin, Liaoning on December 13, 2019, with no sentence recorded — matching the roster's band on name, province, and detention-without-trial status. Across the database's 4,372 records, exactly one entry matches this name. A same-name police officer in Hebei found in earlier searches is a different person and is not attached to this record.
What this record does not claim
This page does not state what happened after early 2020 — no later dated custody information was found. It does not assert the reason for the detention beyond what the cited reports say (the suspected link to online posts is reported as belief and suspicion, not as an established fact). It does not treat a roster listing as a court record.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders' Prisoners of Conscience database; Chinese Political Prisoner Concern (CPPC 00844); ChinaAid Association (December 13, 2019); PEN America via Hyperallergic (January 2020); Rights Defense Network Issue 131 monthly report (August 31, 2026). See the Media Profile & Archive for the full source chronology and evidentiary limits.
Media Profile & Archive: 杨立才 (Yang Licai) — Media Profile & Archive