Liu Zaifu (; born 10 October 1941) is a Chinese author, poet, and professor in literature and the

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

. Liu is particularly well known for his work "Reflections on Dream of the Red Chamber", which analyzes the Chinese classic "

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for ...

", but with Liu's personal viewpoints and philosophy. He has lectured at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

University of Stockholm Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, soci ...

, and the

City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...

, where he served as an honorary professor in 2004.

Personal life

Liu was born in Nan'an,

Quanzhou Quanzhou, postal map romanization, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metrop ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

, in what was then the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Siding with the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

, Liu took particular interest in Marxist literature, but put his own morals and messages behind the pieces, rather than those given by the party. Liu Zaifu graduated from

Xiamen University Xiamen University (; Southern Min: ''Ē-mn̂g-toā-o̍h''), colloquially known as Xia Da (; Southern Min: ''Hā-tāi''), is a national public research university in Xiamen, Fujian, China. Founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, a Chinese patriotic exp ...

in 1963 with a degree in Chinese literature. After his graduation, he became the editor-in-chief of ''Wenxue Pinglun'' (Literary Review), a Chinese periodical discussing literary works. 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 ...

, Liu was placed under house arrest for his personal views of

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

belief and doctrine not matching those of the party. He was given protection by future President

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...

. Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution, Liu traveled abroad, going to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

among other places, which would end up influencing his works, along with spreading his literature abroad outside of China.

Works

* ''Lu Xun and Natural Science (Theory)'' (1977) * ''Comments on Heng Meiji and Yang Zhijie'' (1978) * ''Rain Silk Set'' (1979) * ''Lu Xun's Biography'' (1981) * ''On Lu Xun's Aesthetic Thought'' (1981) * ''Farewell'' (1983) * ''Deep Sea Pursuit'' (1983) * ''Sun? Land? Man'' (1984) * ''White Rushes'' (1985) * ''Theory of Character Composition'' (1986) * ''Liu Zaifu's Essay'' (1986) * ''Reflections on Literature'' (1986) * ''Human? Mother-in-law? Love'' (1988) * ''Chinese People and Tradition'' (1988) * ''On the Design of Human Culture in China'' (1988) * ''Liu Zaifu's Prose Poem Collection'' (1988) * ''Liu Zai Collection'' (1988) * ''Human Goddess of Love'' (2013) * ''Laughter for the Search'' (2013) * ''Reading the Bohai Sea Again'' (2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Zaifu 1941 births Living people 20th-century Chinese writers 21st-century Chinese writers Xiamen University alumni Chinese literary theorists