Hsia Yen

(pen name of Shen Tuan-hsien). Born 1901 in Hangchou. Chinese playwright.

Hsia Yen studied in Japan. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1927 and helped found the Chinese League of Left Writers. He wrote the historical plays The Life ofCh’iu Chin (1936) and Sai Chin-hua (1936), the social drama Under the Roofs of Shanghai (1937; Russian translation, 1961), and the patriotic plays In a Year (1939) and The Bacilli of Fascism (1942). He translated Gorky’s novel The Mother and a number of works by Japanese writers, and adapted L. N. Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection for the stage. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and until 1966, Hsia Yen helped direct China’s cultural life. He has published the play The Test (1954), film scripts, and articles on the theater and cinema. He was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.