Baren (; 1901–1972) was a modern

Chinese writer This is a list of Chinese writers. Chronological list Qin dynasty and before * Gan De (fl. 4th century BC) * Gongsun Long (c. 325–250 BC) * Kong Qiu (551–479 BC) * Li Kui (legalist), Li Kui (fl. 4th century BC) * Lu Jia (d. 170) * Han Fei ...

, critic and translator.

Biography

Baren was born Wang Renshu () in

Fenghua Fenghua (; ) is a district of the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. The district and its administrative hinterlands has a population of over 480,000. Fenghua is most famous for being the hometown of former Presidents Chiang Kai-shek an ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

. He went to elementary school when he was 8, and entered the Fourth Normal School of Zhejiang in 1915. After graduating in 1920, he became a grade school teacher. In 1923 he started to write short stories and poems, and joined the Literature Research Society. One year later, Baren became a member of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

. In 1930, he joined the

League of the Left-Wing Writers __NOTOC__ The League of Left-Wing Writers (), commonly abbreviated as the Zuolian in Chinese, was an organization of writers formed in Shanghai, China, on 2 March 1930, at the instigation of the Chinese Communist Party and the influence of the cel ...

. When the

anti-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Thea ...

broke out, Baren stayed in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

to publicize anti-war culture. In 1942, he went to Indonesia, pursuing the anti-war movement. He returned to China in 1948. After the

founding of the People's Republic of China The founding of the People's Republic of China was formally proclaimed by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on October 1, 1949, at 3:00 pm in Tiananmen Square in Peking, now Beijing (formerly Beiping), the new c ...

, he served as Chinese ambassador to Indonesia and the director of the

People's Literature Publishing House The People's Literature Publishing House () is a large-scale publishing house in China. It was established in March 1951, and was attached to the (). It is known for scholarly publications, editions of classical Chinese literature, dictionaries, ...

. Baren was persecuted and put to death during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. Baren preferred fiction writing. He created collections of short stories including ''Jail'', ''Shack'', ''In the Decline'' and ''Martyrdom'', novellas such as ''Vagrant Life of Ah Quei'' and ''Badge'', and the novel ''Rebellion of Mang Xiucai''. His work on literary theory, ''On Literature'', was heavily influenced by the ideals of anti-Soviet critics.

References

* * 1992 /1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Baren 1972 deaths 1901 births Ambassadors of China to Indonesia Writers from Ningbo Republic of China novelists Politicians from Ningbo Victims of the Cultural Revolution Republic of China essayists Chinese male short story writers Republic of China journalists People's Republic of China essayists People's Republic of China historians 20th-century Chinese historians Chinese male novelists People's Republic of China novelists 20th-century Chinese novelists Historians from Zhejiang 20th-century essayists Short story writers from Zhejiang Republic of China short story writers People's Republic of China short story writers Chinese literary theorists