Su Shuyang (; 1938 – 16 July 2019), who also used the pen names Shu Yang () and Yu Pingfu (), was a Chinese playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. He also wrote the bestselling

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

work ''A Reader on China'', which sold 15 million copies.

Life and career

Su Shuyang was born in 1938 in Baoding,

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

, Republic of China. After graduating in 1960 from Renmin University of China with a degree in history, he taught at several universities including Beijing College of Chinese Medicine. After the end of 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 ...

, Su wrote his first play, ''The Story of Loyal Hearts'' (丹心谱, 1978). A representative work in the "anti-

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...

" genre, the play depicts a doctor dedicated to researching a new medicine despite sabotage by the Gang's followers. It was highly popular and launched Su's writing career. Following the success of his first play, Su was hired by Beijing Film Studio as a screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for the film ''Sunset Street'' (), which documents the changes to the lives of Beijingers during the

reform and opening The Chinese economic reform or reform and opening-up (), known in the West as the opening of China, is the program of economic reforms termed " Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of Ch ...

era. The film resonated with the audience and was a major success. He subsequently wrote a number of screenplays and novels, including ''Homeland'' (). Su's second play, ''Neighbours'' (左邻右舍, 1980), continued the tradition of the celebrated writer Lao She in depicting the lives of ordinary people of Beijing. It centres on a retired worker who helps the sick, the elderly, and the downtrodden, such as a former "

rightist Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

" falsely denounced for criticizing 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 ...

(CCP). Su's tragedy, ''Taiping Lake'', features Lao She himself. It depicts the last day of the writer's life (24 August 1966), when he drowned himself in the lake after being tortured by the Red Guards. In the play, Lao She wanders around Taiping Lake, converses with the tragic characters he has condemned to death in his works, and contemplates the tragic irony of his own life: his devotion to the CCP and the charges against him of being an anti-CCP counterrevolutionary. In 1998, Su published ''A Reader on China'' (), a 150,000-character non-fiction book on Chinese civilization. It became his best-selling work, with 15 million copies sold. The book was well received at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair and

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published its German translation. In 2008, he published ''A Reader on Tibet'' (), which he had spent three years researching and writing.

Death

Su suffered from cancer and underwent surgery to remove part of his stomach, lung, and spleen. He was prevented from writing new novels and plays in his later life due to poor health. He died on 16 July, 2019, in Beijing, at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Su, Shuyang 1938 births 2019 deaths Writers from Baoding Chinese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Chinese novelists Screenwriters from Hebei Renmin University of China alumni Chinese non-fiction writers