Zhou Keqin (; 1937 – August 5, 1990) was a Chinese writer regarded as a representative of

Scar literature Scar literature or literature of the wounded () is a genre of Chinese literature which emerged in the late 1970s during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period, soon after the death of Mao Zedong, portraying the sufferings of cadres and intellectuals du ...

. Born in Jianyang, Sichuan, he is famous in China for the 1979 novel ''Xu Mao and His Daughters'', which was made into a movie in 1981 and which also won him the first-time

Mao Dun Literature Prize Mao Dun Literature Prize () is a prize for novels, established in the will of prominent Chinese writer Mao Dun (for which he personally donated 250,000 RMB) and sponsored by the China Writers Association. Awarded every four years, it is one of t ...

, a prestigious literary award.

Biography

Zhou graduated from Chengdu Agricultural Technology School in 1958 and then became a farmer in his hometown. He published his first work, ''At the Well'', in 1963. Afterwards, he published many short stories in newspapers. In 1979, he completed the novel ''Xu Mao and His Daughters'', about 200,000 characters in length, which, in realistic style, depicted the life of a farmer's family in a desolate village and reflected the impacts of many rural policies on the family. Zhou became a renowned writer nationwide in China for this novel and he was considered one of the leading figures in Scar Literature. Zhou became the vice chairman of the Sichuan Writers Association in 1984 and he later served as a member of Chinese Writers Association 4th Council.

Death

He died on August 5, 1990, in

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

, aged 53.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhou, Keqin 1937 births 1990 deaths Chinese male short story writers Writers from Chengdu 20th-century novelists Mao Dun Literature Prize laureates Chinese male novelists 20th-century Chinese short story writers 20th-century Chinese male writers Short story writers from Sichuan