Ba Jin

Ba Jin (November 25, 1904 - October 17, 2005), formerly known as Li Yaotang and courtesy name Fu Gan, was a Han nationality, a native of Chengdu, Sichuan, and his ancestral home was Jiaxing, Zhejiang. He was a modern Chinese writer, publisher, translator, and anarchist. His works were translated into many languages, and no novels were published after 1949. His wife, Xiao Shan, married Ba Jin in Huaxi in May 1944. Since March 1983, Ba Jin has been elected vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for five consecutive times, serving until his death. Yu Feng described Ba Jin as "the conscience of the nation". He was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and his wife Xiao Shan was persecuted to death in 1972. In his later years, he proposed to establish a Museum of Modern Chinese Literature and a Museum of the Cultural Revolution, but the latter did not materialize.