Zhang xianliang biography channel

Zhang Xianliang (Chinese: 张贤亮; December 1936 – 27 September 2014) was a Chinese novelist, essayist, and poet, and former president of the Chinese Writers Association in Ningxia.

He was detained as a political prisoner during the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957,^[1] until his political rehabilitation in 1979. His most well known works, including Half of Man is Woman and Grass Soup, were semi-autobiographical reflections on his life experiences in prison and in witnessing the political upheaval of China during the Cultural Revolution.^[2]

Life

Zhang Xianliang was born in 1936 into an upper-middle-class family in Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China.

His father was a Kuomintang official and industrialist who managed a number of companies. Following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, Zhang's father was accused of espionage, and later died in prison.^[3]

Zhang began publishing poetry at the age of 13.