Xia Yan (playwright)

Xia Yan (; 30 October 1900 – 6 February 1995) was a left-lean Chinese playwright and screenwriter, and the People's Republic of China's Deputy Minister of Culture between 1954 and 1965.

Among the dozens of plays and screenplays penned by Xia Yan, the most renowned include Under the Eaves of Shanghai (1937) and The Fascist Bacillus (1944). Today the Xia Yan Film Literature Award is named in his honor.

Personal life

Xia entered Zhejiang Industrial School ( , a technical school of Zhejiang University) in 1915, five years before being sent to study in Japan. He was forced to return in 1927, two years after graduating with an engineering degree.

Political career

On Xia's return in 1927 expelled by Japanese authorities for his political activity

Xia is credited with introducing Soviet cinema to China,

Xia's political career ended in 1965, when he was removed from office and spent eight years in prison during the Cultural Revolution. Xia wrote the play during a three month period when he secluded himself in a Shanghai apartment as a result of his contact Yuan Shu, a CCP intelligence agent who also worked with Soviet intelligence, being exposed in connection with the strange Westerner incident.