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Lao She (sh)




orig. Shu Qingchun or Shu Sheyu

born Feb. 3, 1899, Beijing, China
died Aug. 24?, 1966, Beijing

Chinese writer.

He worked as an educator before going to England in 1924, and he was inspired to write his first novel while reading the works of Charles Dickens to improve his English. He originally championed strong, hard-working individuals but later expressed the futility of the individual's struggle against society, as in Luotuo Xiangzi (1936), the tragic story of a ricksha puller; Rickshaw Boy, an unauthorized translation with a happy ending (1945), became a U.S. best-seller. After the onset of the Sino-Japanese War, he wrote lesser patriotic and propagandistic plays and novels. In 1966 he fell victim to the Cultural Revolution.