 Ba Jin (pseud. of Li Yaotang or Li Feiang) which was either derived from the Chinese transliterations of the first syllable of the name Bakunin and of the last syllable of the name Kropotkin, two anarchists that he liked or was the name of a friend/perhaps brother who commited suicide) was born on November 25, 1904 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, into an official’s family. He received a good education under private tutorship. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 imbued him with with both anarchic and democratic ideals. His anarchist tendencies also seem to be influenced by the repression he felt within his own household. During his youth he was also inspired by Emma Goldman and Piotr Kopotkin’s works. DuThe following year, he studied English at Chengdu Foreign Language School. In 1923, he moved to Shanghai, and then to Nanjing where he entered the preparatory school affiliated with the Southeast China University. In Nanjing, at Dongnan University, Ba Jin was able to participate in leftist socialist movements and further his writings and studying of the anarchist movement.During the two-year study he wrote and translated several articles on anarchism. In 1927, he went to France, where he wrote his first novel “Destruction” about a depressed young anarchist. He professes that his time in France was not that of a holiday:””In spring 1927 I was living atop a five-storied apartment at Paris’s Quartier Latin, a small lodging full of gas and onion smell. I was lonely, I felt pain, sunlight hardly shone into my room: I missed my homeland and my family.” (一九二七年春天我住在巴黎拉丁区一家小小公寓的五层楼上，一间充满煤气和洋葱味的小屋子里，我寂寞，我痛苦，在阳光难照到的房间里，我想念祖国，想念亲人。)”His book “Destruction was inspired by the desperation and boredom he felt while in France. While in Paris, Ba Jin continued his anarchist activism, he translated many anarchist works, including Kropotkin’s Ethics, into Chinese, which was shipped back to Shanghai anarchist magazines for publication. He returned to Shanghai in 1929 and became a serious writer. Before the Cultural Revolution he was praised by Mao Zedong and his contemporaries for being an opponent of the old regime, but quickly suffered the same fate as many writers and intellectuals. Also at this time in 1972, his wife died while he served in a labor camp, she was denied medical treatment. During the War of Resistance against Japan, he moved from place to place, and was the council member of the All-China Federation of Writers and Artists. He suffered from cruel persecution, and finally, in the decade of Deng Xiao-ping’s reforms, he was elected honorary chairman of Chinese Writers’ Association. His writings were very much inspired by socialist and anarchist movements. His works include “Family,”(one of his most famou works which describes growing up in the oppression of a fuedal household) “Spring,” “Autumn,” and others. “Family” also alluded to the suicide of his own older brother which was inspired by the hypocracy of feudalism at the dawn of a new age. During his lifetime he also recieved the Nobel Prize for literature. In the 1980’s he had told reporters that he was working on a book about his experiences during the Cultural Revolution that would be dedicated to his wife. He finally died in 2005 at 101 years of age, fighting a six year battle with cancer and a twenty year battle with Parkinsons. Today, in his hometown, a museum stands in his honor. He has two living heirs, a son and a daughter. Olga Lang, a translator and expert pertaining to Ba Jin, created a personal, in-depth introduction “Family” explaining, in thorough detail the life and details surrounding this renouned author and his work. |
Ba Jin (pseud. of Li Yaotang or Li Feiang) which was either derived from the Chinese transliterations of the first syllable of the name Bakunin and of the last syllable of the name Kropotkin, two anarchists that he liked or was the name of a friend/perhaps brother who commited suicide) was born on November 25, 1904 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, into an official’s family. He received a good education under private tutorship. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 imbued him with with both anarchic and democratic ideals. His anarchist tendencies also seem to be influenced by the repression he felt within his own household. During his youth he was also inspired by Emma Goldman and Piotr Kopotkin’s works. DuThe following year, he studied English at Chengdu Foreign Language School. In 1923, he moved to Shanghai, and then to Nanjing where he entered the preparatory school affiliated with the Southeast China University. In Nanjing, at Dongnan University, Ba Jin was able to participate in leftist socialist movements and further his writings and studying of the anarchist movement.During the two-year study he wrote and translated several articles on anarchism. In 1927, he went to France, where he wrote his first novel “Destruction” about a depressed young anarchist. He professes that his time in France was not that of a holiday:””In spring 1927 I was living atop a five-storied apartment at Paris’s Quartier Latin, a small lodging full of gas and onion smell. I was lonely, I felt pain, sunlight hardly shone into my room: I missed my homeland and my family.” (一九二七年春天我住在巴黎拉丁区一家小小公寓的五层楼上，一间充满煤气和洋葱味的小屋子里，我寂寞，我痛苦，在阳光难照到的房间里，我想念祖国，想念亲人。)”His book “Destruction was inspired by the desperation and boredom he felt while in France. While in Paris, Ba Jin continued his anarchist activism, he translated many anarchist works, including Kropotkin’s Ethics, into Chinese, which was shipped back to Shanghai anarchist magazines for publication. He returned to Shanghai in 1929 and became a serious writer. Before the Cultural Revolution he was praised by Mao Zedong and his contemporaries for being an opponent of the old regime, but quickly suffered the same fate as many writers and intellectuals. Also at this time in 1972, his wife died while he served in a labor camp, she was denied medical treatment. During the War of Resistance against Japan, he moved from place to place, and was the council member of the All-China Federation of Writers and Artists. He suffered from cruel persecution, and finally, in the decade of Deng Xiao-ping’s reforms, he was elected honorary chairman of Chinese Writers’ Association. His writings were very much inspired by socialist and anarchist movements. His works include “Family,”(one of his most famou works which describes growing up in the oppression of a fuedal household) “Spring,” “Autumn,” and others. “Family” also alluded to the suicide of his own older brother which was inspired by the hypocracy of feudalism at the dawn of a new age. During his lifetime he also recieved the Nobel Prize for literature. In the 1980’s he had told reporters that he was working on a book about his experiences during the Cultural Revolution that would be dedicated to his wife. He finally died in 2005 at 101 years of age, fighting a six year battle with cancer and a twenty year battle with Parkinsons. Today, in his hometown, a museum stands in his honor. He has two living heirs, a son and a daughter. Olga Lang, a translator and expert pertaining to Ba Jin, created a personal, in-depth introduction “Family” explaining, in thorough detail the life and details surrounding this renouned author and his work.