Chao Shu-li (1903-), writer and newspaperman, was known for his short stories and novels, which embodied the May 1942 literary directives set forth at Yenan by Mao Tse-tung. He edited the Hsin ta-chung [the new masses], later known as the Kung-jen pao [the workers' paper] Chinshui, Shansi, was the birthplace of Chao Shu-li. His father […]

Shen Yen-ping (1896-), known as Mao Tun, the foremost realist novelist in republican China. He ceased to function as a creative writer in 1949, and he served from 1949 to 1965 as minister of culture in the Central People's Government. Ch'ingchen, a suburban district of T'unghsiang hsien, Chekiang, was the birthplace of Mao Tun. He […]

Ho Ch'i-fang (1910-), poet, journalist, and literary critic, was a prize-winning poet in his youth and an admirer of Western literature. He later became a leading figure in the Chinese Communist cultural hierarchy and a close associate of Chou Yang (q.v.). Little is known about Ho Ch'i-fang's family or early life except that he was […]

Hu Feng (1903-), Marxist literary critic, essayist, and poet. Because of his independent approach to Marxism and his affirmation that the artist is entitled to an individual vision of truth, he was singled out for attack in the 1955 campaign for ideological purity, which was led by Chou Yang (q.v.;. Although Hu Feng's father was […]

Kuo Mo-jo 郭沫若 Orig. Kuo K'ai-chen 郭開貞 Pen. Ting-t'ang 鼎堂 Shih-t'o 石沱 Tu K'an 杜衎 Mai-k'o Ang 麥克昂 I K'an Jen 易坎人 Kuo Mo-jo (October 1892-), poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, translator, historian, paleographer, Creation Society leader, and Chinese Communist propagandist. After 1949 this versatile intellectual served the People's Republic of China as chairman of the […]

Ai Ssu-ch'i 艾思奇 Ai Ssu-ch'i (1905-22 March 1966), ideologue, became prominent in the Chinese Communist movement as a popularizer of Marxist-Leninist theories in such works as his Ta-chung che-hsueh [philosophy for the masses] and in his articles in the Communist party magazine Hsueh-hsi [study]. Virtually nothing is known of Ai Ssu-ch'i's family background or his […]

Chou Shu-jen 周樹人 Alt. Lu Hsün 魯迅 Chou Shu-jen (1881-19 October 1936), known as Lu Hsün, a writer and social critic of such prominence that he became an almost legendary figure. Shaohsing, Chekiang, was the native place of Lu Hsün. He was born into a family of commercial and minor official background. Like his two […]