Xia Yan (; 30 October 1900 – 6 February 1995) was a Chinese playwright and screenwriter, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

's Deputy Minister of Culture between 1954 and 1965. Among the dozens of plays and screenplays penned by Xia Yan, the most renowned include ''Under the Eaves of Shanghai'' (1937) and ''The Fascist Bacillus'' (1944). Today the Xia Yan Film Literature Award is named in his honour.

Personal life

Xia entered Zhejiang Industrial School ( , a technical school of

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the na ...

) in 1915, five years before being sent to study in Japan. He was forced to return in 1927, two years after graduating with an engineering degree.

Political career

On Xia's return in 1927 expelled by Japanese authorities for his political activity he joined the

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

and rose to become a cultural chief in the

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 ...

municipality, and then Deputy Minister of Culture in 1954. In 1961, Xia wrote an essay called "Raise Our Country's Film Art to a New Level". The essay, implicitly critical of the

Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruc ...

, called for greater autonomy for artists and more diversity within Chinese cinema. The implementation of his directives is said to have led to the achievement of a "tremendous diversity" which lasted until 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 ...

. Xia is credited with introducing

Soviet cinema The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. M ...

to China, and helped to establish a realist tradition that emphasised active engagement with national issues, leaving a strong legacy that continued into the post-Mao era. Xia's political career ended in 1965, when he was removed from office and spent eight years in prison during the

Notes

References and further reading

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External links

Feature on Xia Yan in Chinese Movies

Hangzhou Former Residence of Xia Yan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xia, Yan 1900 births 1995 deaths Chinese dramatists and playwrights Screenwriters from Zhejiang People's Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang Zhejiang University alumni Zhejiang University faculty Republic of China translators People's Republic of China translators Writers from Hangzhou Politicians from Hangzhou Victims of the Cultural Revolution 20th-century Chinese translators 20th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century screenwriters