Lao She

(pseudonym of Shu she-yu, also called Shu ch’ing-ch’un). Born February 1899, in Peking; died 1966. Chinese writer. Manchurian by nationality. Son of a soldier.

Lao She graduated from a teachers’ seminary in 1918. A professor, he was a deputy to the All-China National People’s Congress from 1954. From 1924 to 1929 he taught Chinese at the University of London. It was in Great Britain that he wrote his first social novels, which reflected the development of bourgeois society in feudal China. These novels include Lao Chang’s Philosophy (1926), Chao Tzu-yueh (1927), and The Two Ma’s (1928). After returning to his homeland, Lao She wrote the satirical novel The City of Cats (1933; Russian translation, 1969). The fate of the ordinary man is the subject of some of his novels, including Divorce (1933; Russian translation, 1967) and Rickshaw Boy (1935; Russian translation, 1956).

During the Japanese occupation (1937–45) Lao She headed the All-China Anti-Japanese Writers Federation. In works that included the novel Cremation (1940) and the plays Wisps of Fog (1940) and The State Above All (1943), he condemned traitors to the homeland and glorified the people’s courage and friendship between peoples of different nationalities. From 1946 to 1949, while in the USA, he worked on the trilogy Four Generations Under One Roof, which deals with the Japanese occupation of China. Upon returning to his homeland, he wrote several dramas reflecting the development of socialist ideology in the consciousness of the Chinese people. He also wrote the historical drama A Fist in the Name of Justice (1961), dealing with the Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901.