Wan Runnan (; born 29 October 1946 in Yixing,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

) is a Software engineer, Entrepreneur and a Chinese human rights activist who is known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement.

Life

Wan was in college studying engineering when he had his first taste of repression. With the fanaticism 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 ...

sweeping the country, Wan was forced to interrupt his studies by the authorities and sent, without reason, to labor as a railway worker in the countryside. He eventually graduated (1970) from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

and went on to a position with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1984 he started Stone Emerging Industries Company, which produces computer software and English- Chinese word processors. The Chinese typewriter was ultimately eclipsed and made redundant with the introduction of computerised word processing, pioneered by engineer and dissident Wan Runnan and his partners when they formed

Stone Emerging Industries Company In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

() in 1984 in

Zhongguancun Zhongguancun () is a major technology hub in Haidian District, Beijing, China. Zhongguancun occupies a band between the northwestern Third Ring Road and the northwestern Fourth Ring Road, in the northwestern part of Beijing. Zhongguancun is ...

, China's "

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

". Stone developed software based on

Alps Electric is a Japanese multinational corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, producing electronic devices, including switches, potentiometers, sensors, encoders and touchpads. The company was established in 1948 as Kataoka Electric Co., Ltd. and ch ...

custom made 8088 based hardware with a Brother Industries dot matrix printer, distributed by Mitsui, to print Chinese characters and released the system as the MS-2400. When the pro-democracy protests began in the spring of 1989, Wan provided material support for the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square and helped organize negotiations between the students and government. He became convinced that the Communists would crack down if the square wasn’t evacuated, but his warnings to the students went unheeded and the massacre soon followed. Wan decided to flee after the June 4 crack down and is now wanted by the Chinese authorities. A month after the massacre Wan Runnan, along with prominent exiles such as

Liu Binyan Liu Binyan (; February 7, 1925 – December 5, 2005) was a Chinese author, journalist, and political dissident. Many of the events in Liu's life are recounted in his memoir, ''A Higher Kind of Loyalty''. Early life Liu Binyan, whose family hails ...

Wuer Kaixi Örkesh Dölet ( ug, ئۆركەش دۆلەت, zh, 吾尔开希·多莱特; commonly known by his pinyin name Wu'erkaixi) is a political commentator known for his leading role during the Tiananmen protests of 1989. Of Uyghur heritage, he was bo ...

and

Yan Jiaqi Yan Jiaqi (; born December 25, 1942) is a Chinese political scientist and dissident. Biography Yan was born on 25 December 1942 in Wujin District, Changzhou, Jiangsu, during the Chinese Civil War. In 1959, he entered the University of Science a ...

, met in Paris to call for the creation of the

Federation for a Democratic China Federation for a Democratic China (FDC ) is a Canada based political group that advocates the democratization of China through opposition of the Chinese Communist Party and the support of human rights. It was founded on September 22, 1989 in Pari ...

(FDC). He was the President of the FDC and lived in France during the FDC's initial stages and later moved to the United States. Wan Runnan currently lives in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Runnan is one of three subjects in the feature documentary ''The Exiles'' (2022) which won the

Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

for Best Documentary at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

References

External links

獨立中文筆會萬潤南專頁(Chinese language)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wan, Runnan 1946 births Chinese dissidents Chinese democracy activists Writers from Beijing Chinese human rights activists Living people