Wu Ningkun (; September 1920 – August 10, 2019) was Professor Emeritus of English at the

University of International Relations The University of International Relations (UIR; ) is a national public university in Beijing, China. Its former English name is translated as "Institute of International Relations." It is also colloquially known as "Guoguan" (国关 Guó Gū ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, where he had taught since 1956. During the 1980s, he held Visiting Fellowships at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. In 1990, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, Indiana. In 1992, he was Mansfield Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...

. He has frequently lectured at Cambridge, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard and other universities. His publications include the memoir
''A Single Tear - A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China''
written in collaboration with his wife, Li Yikai (); scholarly essays in English and Chinese; and translations from English into Chinese and vice versa, among them a translation of ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...

'' by

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

. He was a member of th
Independent Chinese PEN Center
but resigned in 2006.

Biography

Wu Ningkun was born on August 14, 1920 (lunar calendar),

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, China. In 1939, at the end of his sophomore year at the

National Southwestern Associated University When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha and later National Southwestern Associated Universi ...

in Kunming, he volunteered for the Chinese National Revolutionary Army as interpreter for the American Flying Tigers. After the Second World War, in 1946, he took up his study of English literature again at

Manchester University (Indiana) Manchester University (formerly Manchester College) is a private liberal arts university associated with the Church of the Brethren and two locations, a residential campus in North Manchester, Indiana, and a second location in Fort Wayne, Indian ...

and the

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

. In 1951, while working on a dissertation about T. S. Eliot, he was invited to return to China and accept an academic position at

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...

, Beijing, replacing an American professor who was forced to depart due to the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. He decided to interrupt his doctoral studies and accept the invitation: "The lure of a meaningful life in a brave new world outweighed the attraction of a doctorate and an academic future in an alien land."A Single Tear, New York 1993, p.5 In his memoir he recounts an anecdote about T. D. Lee, one of the fellow graduate students who had come to see him off for his journey:

"Why aren't you coming home to serve the new China, T. D.?" He answered with a knowing smile, "I don't want to have my brains washed by others." As I didn't know how brains could be washed, I did not at the time find the idea very daunting.

Not long after his return, however, Wu got his first taste of what "brain washing" could mean, in the form of enforced "thought reform" sessions. In 1952, after one year at Yenching University, Wu was transferred to Nankai University,

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, where he met his wife, Li Yikai. The couple married in 1954. During the 1955 Campaign to Uproot Hidden Counterrevolutionaries Wu was suspected of having been a Nationalist spy, or of still being an American spy, and he was denounced as the number-one "hidden counterrevolutionary" at Nankai University. In 1957, during the

Hundred Flowers Campaign The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement (), was a period from 1956 to 1957 in the People's Republic of China during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) encouraged citizens to openly express their opinions of t ...

, he was one of the intellectuals who - despite initial misgivings - spoke up for freedom of speech. This led to his formal denouncement as an "ultra-rightist" during the

Anti-Rightist campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign was ...

of September 1957, and in the spring of 1958 he was sent to a state prison farm in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

for "corrective education through hard labor". In 1961, during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward, he was released from prison. 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 goa ...

(1966–1976) Wu and his family were again persecuted, as were so many other intellectuals and their families. In 1980 he was rehabilitated, and he resumed his former teaching post at the Institute of International Relations.

Notes

External links

Independent Chinese PEN Center: Wu Ningkun

*"Remembering Wu Ningkun", by Cai Yiwen, ''Sixth Tone'', 17 Aug 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Ningkun 1920 births 2019 deaths American writers of Chinese descent Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign Converts to Roman Catholicism University of Chicago alumni National Southwestern Associated University alumni Manchester University (Indiana) alumni Academic staff of Yenching University Academic staff of Nankai University Academic staff of Anhui University Academic staff of Anhui Normal University Victims of the Cultural Revolution Chinese emigrants to the United States People's Republic of China translators Chinese–English translators English–Chinese translators