Su Shuyang

Su Shuyang (

Life and career

Su Shuyang was born in 1938 in

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Su wrote his first play, The Story of Loyal Hearts (丹心谱, 1978). A representative work in the "anti-Gang of Four" genre, the play depicts a doctor dedicated to researching a new medicine despite sabotage by the Gang's followers.^[2] It was highly popular and launched Su's writing career.^[2][5]

Following the success of his first play, Su was hired by

Su's second play, Neighbours (左邻右舍, 1980), continued the tradition of the celebrated writer Lao She in depicting the lives of ordinary people of Beijing. It centres on a retired worker who helps the sick, the elderly, and the downtrodden, such as a former "rightist" falsely denounced for criticizing the Communist Party.^[2][3]

Su's tragedy, Taiping Lake, features Lao She himself. It depicts the last day of the writer's life (24 August 1966), when he drowned himself in the lake after being tortured by the

In 1998, Su published A Reader on China (中国读本), a 150,000-character non-fiction book on Chinese civilization. It became his best-selling work, with 15 million copies sold.[5] The book was well received at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair and Bertelsmann published its German translation.^[4] In 2008, he published A Reader on Tibet (西藏读本), which he had spent three years researching and writing.^[5]

Death

Su suffered from cancer and underwent surgery to remove part of his stomach, lung, and spleen. He was prevented from writing new novels and plays in his later life due to poor health.^[4] He died on 16 July, 2019, in Beijing, at the age of 81.^[1][5]

References