Xiao Qian (; born Xiao Bingqian (); 27 January 1910 – 11 February 1999), also known by the alias Ruoping (), was a famous essayist, editor, journalist and translator from China. His life spanned the country's history before and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Biography
Early years
Xiao was born on 27 January 1910 in Beijing. His name at birth was Xiao Bingqian (). He was born into a sinicized Mongol family. His father died before his birth, leaving only his mother to raise him. His mother died when he was seven, and he was sent to live with his cousins.
School days
In 1917, at the age of 7, Xiao entered the Chongshi School (). It was a church school run by European missionaries. He took up part-time jobs to pay the tuition fees (e.g. weaving Turkish rugs, delivering milk and mimeographing lecture notes in the school administration office). He worked in the morning and studied in the afternoon. In summer 1924, about half a year before completing junior middle school, he worked as a trainee in Beixin Press bookstore. This sparked his interest in literature. In the same year he joined the Communist Youth League.
In 1931 Xiao enrolled at Fu Jen Catholic University. Together with an American youth William Allen he published a magazine in English China in Brief (中國簡報, Zhōngguó Jiǎnbào). It presented works of famous authors such as Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, Wen Yiduo and Yu Dafu. Due to insufficient funding the magazine ended after eight issues, but it influenced the foreign readers in Beijing. In this period he became a student of Shen Congwen, who greatly influenced Xiao's early writings.
In 1933 Xiao entered the Faculty of English in Yenching University and in autumn of the same year he switched to the Faculty of Journalism. His teacher was an American journalist Edgar Snow. Snow encouraged him to use various literary techniques in journalistic reporting, which became characteristic to Xiao's writing. He graduated in June 1936 and continued the studies as a postgraduate student at Cambridge University. Soon after he became a lecturer at University College London.
Life in England
In 1939, at the age of 28, Xiao Qian returned to England to work as an instructor in modern Chinese language for the School of Oriential and African Studies (SOAS) in London. SOAS was moved to Cambridge when Germany began the devastating bombing campaign Blitz.
Xiao Qian was politically active and made regular speeches for the China Campaign Committee, a left-wing group which campaigned against the Japanese occupation in China.
Marriage and family
He married four times. In 1936 he met his first wife Wang Shucang () while working on the Shanghai edition of the Ta Kung Pao. The couple only stayed together for two years before he fell in love with another woman during his stay in Hong Kong. They had an extramarital son born in 1948. Xiao tried to get a divorce, but Wang opposed it and as a result Xiao Qian left China for England.
In 1954, Xiao married his fourth wife, Wen Jieruo (). They had two sons and a daughter. On 30 January 1955 the daughter Xiao Lizi () was born.
Later years
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) Xiao Qian was regarded by the Chinese Communist Party as right wing and was banished to the countryside. In 1968 he tried to commit suicide. In 1978 he received a redress as one of the mishandled cases. In 1979 he was a resident in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
In 1999 Xiao Qian died at the age of 89 of myocardial infarction and renal failure in Beijing.
Personal life
Xiao had a child named Xiao Tiezhu () with Xie Gewen ().
Xiao married translator Wen Jieruo in the spring of 1954, the couple has two sons and a daughter. Their daughter Xiao Lizi () was born on 30 January 1955. All of her children are living in the United States.