Jiang Rong
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Lü Jiamin (born 1946 in
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 ...
), better known by his pseudonym Jiang Rong, is a Chinese writer, most famous for his best-selling 2004 novel ''
Wolf Totem ''Wolf Totem'' () is a 2004 Chinese semi-autobiographical novel about the experiences of a young student from Beijing who finds himself sent to the countryside of Inner Mongolia in 1967, at the height of China's Cultural Revolution. The author, ...
'', which he wrote under the pseudonym Jiang Rong. He is married to fellow novelist
Zhang Kangkang Zhang Kangkang (born as Zhang Kangmei, July 3, 1950, Hangzhou) is a Chinese female writer. Background Zhang was born into a family of Communist intellectuals. Her first name ''Kang-Kang'' means "resistance-resistance." She belongs to a generation ...
.


Early life

Lü's parents both came from
Jiading Jiading is a suburban district of Shanghai. It had a population of 1,471,100 in 2010. History Historically, Jiading was a separate municipality/town, until, in 1958, becoming under the administration of Shanghai. In 1993, Jiading's designate ...
, a town outside of Shanghai. They both 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 ...
in Shanghai in the 1920s, and both his parents served in the army during the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
, fighting against the
Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...
. After the war, his mother became involved in education, while his father rose to the position of bureau chief in the Ministry of Health. His mother died of cancer when he was just 11. Lü first attracted negative attention from the authorities as early as 1964, while still a student; he was denounced as "counter-revolutionary" for an essay he had written. He went on to join
Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
, even though his father had been targeted by those same Red Guards as a
capitalist roader In anti-capitalist Mao Zedong thought, a capitalist roader (; also ) is a person or group who demonstrates a marked tendency to bow to pressure from bourgeois forces and subsequently attempts to pull the Revolution in a capitalist direction. If a ...
; however, when the Red Guards began confiscating books and participating in book burnings, Lü often secreted the books away, adding them to his own private collection. In 1967, as a 21-year-old high school graduate, Lü volunteered to go as a "
sent-down youth The sent-down, rusticated, or "educated" youth (), also known as the ''zhiqing'', were the young people who—beginning in the 1950s until the end of the Cultural Revolution, willingly or under coercion—left the urban districts of the ...
" to
East Ujimqin Banner East Ujimqin Banner ( Mongolian: ''Jegün Ujumučin qosiɣu''; ) is a banner in the northeast of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Xilin Gol League. Geography and climate East ...
in
Xilin Gol League Xilingol, Xilin Gol, Shiliin Gol or Xilinguole Aimag/League (; mn, , , , ) is one of 3 leagues of Inner Mongolia. The seat is Xilinhot, and the area is . The league's economy is based on mining and agriculture. Xilingol borders Mongolia to t ...
,
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, where he remained for eleven years, until the age of 33. By his own admission, he chose the remote location of Inner Mongolia rather than the more popular
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 ...
in
Northeastern China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...
so that he could bring his books with him; he feared that if we went to Heilongjiang, he would have to live in
army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
barracks, and might get his books confiscated.


Writing ''Wolf Totem''

Lü began thinking about and writing up the ideas behind ''Wolf Totem'' as early as 1971, while still in Inner Mongolia, but did not yet begin to write anything down. He returned to
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 ...
in 1978, where he participated in the
Beijing Spring The Beijing Spring () refers to a brief period of political liberalization during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It began as the Democracy Wall movement in Beijing, which occurred in 1978 and 1979, right aft ...
movement, becoming editor-in-chief of the eponymous literary journal ''
Beijing Spring The Beijing Spring () refers to a brief period of political liberalization during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It began as the Democracy Wall movement in Beijing, which occurred in 1978 and 1979, right aft ...
''. A year later, he entered the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...
. After his graduation, he became an associate professor at the
China Labor College China University of Labor Relations (), previously known as China Institute of Industrial Relations and abbreviated as CIIR, is a university in Beijing, China. It is the only public college under the direction of All-China Federation of Trade U ...
. He was arrested for his role in the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
, but was released in January 1991 without ever having been tried, along with
Liu Suli / ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic tex ...
, He Dong and Chen Po, as well as student leaders Xiong Yan and
Zhou Suofen Zhou may refer to: Chinese history * King Zhou of Shang () (1105 BC–1046 BC), the last king of the Shang dynasty * Predynastic Zhou (), 11th-century BC precursor to the Zhou dynasty * Zhou dynasty () (1046 BC–256 BC), a dynasty of China ** West ...
. He finally produced a complete first draft of ''Wolf Totem'' 1997, and only submitted the final draft to his publisher at the end of 2003. His hardest work on the novel was done in the final six years; his wife, herself a famous novelist, described how he "locked himself in his office every day and refused to tell me what he was doing". Though Lü often agreed to give interviews to both domestic and foreign media, he refused to allow pictures of himself to be published. Until 2006, only five people even knew his true identity; he never revealed his real name to the media, though his identity became known to China's Ministry of Public Security. A number of other writers took advantage of Lü's anonymity to write fake sequels to ''Wolf Totem'', including two books both entitled ''Wolf Totem 2'', as well as the 250,000-character long ''Great Wolf of the Plains'' all with the imprint of the Changjiang Arts Publishing House. As a result, in April 2007, he issued a statement which denounced all such "sequels" as fraudulent; he indicated that he was doing research for another book, but would not be publishing anything new in the short term. His identity finally became widely known in November 2007, after he won the first
Man Asian Literary Prize The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writer ...
; a photograph he had submitted to the jury, along with his real name, were published by newspapers all over the world. However, he remained unable to obtain a passport, and thus could not leave
mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
to attend the awards ceremony.


Political views

Lü describes himself as a "critical left-wing thinker", and remains a supporter of democracy and individualism; in a 2005 interview with British newspaper ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'', he expressed his belief that China risked becoming "like
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
" if it did not further democratise. He also indicated his admiration for
Li Yuchun Li Yuchun (; born March 10, 1984), also known by her stage name Chris Lee, is a Chinese singer, songwriter, DJ and actress. She launched her singing career by winning first place in the Chinese singing contest '' Super Girl'', in 2005. The followi ...
, a 2005 participant in the Chinese televised singing competition ''Super Girl'' whose idiosyncratic style and choice of songs gained her popularity and ultimately led her to win first prize in the contest; he described her as a "good symbol for Chinese society". Authors he names as having influenced his work include Balzac,
Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
,
Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
, and
Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
.


Works

* - Won the inaugural
Man Asian Literary Prize The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writer ...
in November 2007.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jiang, Rong Living people Sent-down youths 1946 births Writers from Beijing