From Miss Sophia’s Diary to The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River, a writer who lived through Yan’an and the anti-rightist purge
Born in Linli, Hunan on 12 October 1904, she made her name with Miss Sophia’s Diary in 1928, was expelled from the party in 1958 during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and died in Beijing on 4 March 1986.
From Hunan, she made her name in 1928 with Miss Sophia’s Diary, a portrait of the modern woman’s inner life, and joined the party after the Nationalists executed her husband Hu Yepin in 1931. She reached the Red Army area in northern Shaanxi in 1936 and was welcomed by Mao, but her 1942 essay “Thoughts on March 8” on sexism at Yan’an drew criticism in the rectification movement. Her land-reform novel The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River won a Stalin Prize in 1951; in the 1957 anti-rightist campaign she was labelled a rightist and spent more than twenty years labouring on a farm in the Great Northern Wilderness. She was rehabilitated in 1979.
Career Timeline
- 1949–1957Vice-chair of the Chinese Writers’ Association
Related historical events
- 1937–1945The war with Japan and the second united frontWriter criticised for “Thoughts on March 8”Pointed to sexism at Yan’an and was criticised in the rectification.
- 1956–1957From the Hundred Flowers to the Anti-Rightist CampaignWriter labelled a rightistLabelled in 1957 and spent more than twenty years labouring in the Great Northern Wilderness.