Wang Ruowang
| Wang Ruowang | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 4, 1918 Wujin, Jiangsu, China |
| Died | December 19, 2001 (aged 83) Queens, New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Spouses | Li Ming, Yang Zi |
Wang Ruowang (Chinese: 王若望; pinyin: Wáng Rùowàng; Wade–Giles: Wang Jowang) (February 4, 1918 – December 19, 2001) was a Chinese author and dissident who was imprisoned various times for political reasons by both the Kuomintang and the Communist government of China for advocating reform and liberalization. His name at birth was "Shouhua" (traditional Chinese: 壽華; simplified Chinese: 寿华; pinyin: Shòuhuá), but he was most commonly known by his pen name, "Ruowang". He was a prolific essayist and literary critic.
Wang was a member of the Chinese Communist Party from 1937 to 1957, when he was expelled for holding "rightist views". He rejoined the Communist Party 1979, but in 1987 he was again expelled by Deng Xiaoping for promoting "bourgeois liberalization". After his death in exile in New York City, he was widely eulogized as one of the Chinese government's most significant social and political critics.
In 1932, when Wang was fifteen years old, he was expelled from school for taking part in a student demonstration. He joined the Communist Youth League later that year. In 1933 he moved to Shanghai, where he began work at a pharmaceutical factory while operating as a low-level Communist agent. While working at this factory he founded a publication, Toilet Literature, a newspaper that was distributed by being pasted on the walls of the factory workers' bathroom area. After writing an article in which he mocked Chiang Kai-shek for allowing the Japanese to seize Manchuria, he was arrested in May 1934, and sentenced to ten years in prison. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Chiang Kai-shek declared a "united front" with the Communists against the Japanese, and Wang was released after serving only three and a half years of his sentence as part of a general amnesty. Some of the Communists imprisoned with Wang became successful officials after the Communist victory in 1949: one became the governor of Guangdong, and another became the deputy governor of Anhui.
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