Dai Qing

Dai Qing, born in August 1941, (Chinese: 戴晴, Pinyin: Dài Qíng) is a journalist and activist for China-related issues; most significantly against the Three Gorges Dam Project. Dai is also an author who has published many influential books, articles, and journals.

Dai, also called Fu Ning (傅凝/傅小慶), was born in Chongqing, Sichuan in August 1941. She is the daughter of Yang Jie (楊潔) and Fu Daqing (傅大慶)—a Chinese intellectual and Communist Party martyr who was killed by the Japanese army in 1944. Dai Qing was then adopted by her father's friend, Ye Jianying (葉劍英), who was a major Chinese political figure and one of the ten marshals of the People's Liberation Army. .

In 1966, Dai wrote a short story that was well accepted by the public. At that time, her daughter was about 7 to 8 years old. Unfortunately, her daughter did not have any books to read. Dai then wondered why children in other countries, like the United States, had books to read, but there was none for children in China.

She then tried to study English in Nanjing (南京) for two years. This enabled her to translate English books into Chinese for her daughter. At that time, however, only a minority of Chinese could study English, such as those in the military. As Dai could not afford English education, she returned to her engineering career, working on guided missile systems.

During the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命) in 1966-1976, Dai and her husband, Wang Dejia (王德嘉), were sent to the countryside to be "reformed through labour" and worked as peasants. They were forced to leave Beijing where their daughter, Wang Xiaojia (王小嘉) lived. This showed Dai the uglier side of the Chinese government and made her realize that Chinese citizens were least important to it. After the Cultural Revolution, Dai was unable to return to her former career. Later on, she worked on surveillance equipment and after that as a writer for the People's Liberation Army( 人民解放軍). In 1982, she left the Army and joined Guangming Daily (光明日報) as a news reporter.

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