Cong Weixi

Cong Weixi (Traditional Chinese: 從維熙, Simplified Chinese: 从维熙, Hanyu Pinyin: Cong2 Wei2Xi1, Wade–Giles: Tsong Wei-Hsi), (born April 7, 1933) is a noted contemporary Chinese author and founder of the "daqiang wenxue" (literally, "high wall literature") movement that reflected and brooded on the experiences of those in imprisoned the laogai, or reeducation through labor, system. Highly influential in the post-Mao Zedong literary scene, his works exerted a substantial influence on those of later Chinese authors. He was also director of the Writers Publishing House.^[1]

Early life

Cong Weixi was born on April 7, 1933 in the town of Daiguantun, in what is today Yutian county, Hebei province, China. His father was the son of a local landlord; he, along with two of his brothers, all attended college, a rare feat in pre-1949 China. When Weixi was born, his father was working in Chongqing as an aerospace engineer. However, when the young Weixi was merely 4 years old, his father was imprisoned by the Kuomintang for expressing pro-Communist sentiments, and died in prison to tuberculosis.

Throughout elementary and middle school, Weixi immersed himself in literature. By the time he was 17, he enrolled in the Beijing Normal School, and began publishing works.

Pre-laogai career

Weixi became a teacher and then a journalist. He published two novellas and one novel (七月雨, or The Rains of July) that earned him quite a bit of fame and money. In 1957, one month after his son was born, however, Weixi was branded as a “rightist" in the post-Hundred Flowers anti-Rightist Campaign, along with three other young writers. They were known as the "Four Black Swans" (四只黑天鹅) from the ballet Swan Lake.

Post-laogai career

Weixi was released in 1979 and resumed literary work, publishing the novel The Blood-Stained Magnolia beneath the Wall (大墙下的红玉兰), fathering what became "大墙文学", literally "High Wall Literature", which reflected on the traumas suffered by political prisoners in laogai (reeducation through labor) camps during the anti-Rightist Campaign and Cultural Revolution. By 1984, as his shorter works began to win numerous awards and a steady income, Weixi was able to focus on longer works. His first, 北国草 (, won four citywide literary awards in Beijing. In 1986, he published another work entitled 断桥, or Broken Bridge, which also won numerous awards.

In 1987, he published the first third of his defining autobiographical work, 走向混沌 (A Walk Unto Chaos), which chronicled his life from 1949 onwards. After this, he completed three more novels: 裸雪 (Barren Snow), 酒魂西行 (The Westward Journey of a Drunken Spirit), and 逃犯 (Escapee), in addition to numerous shorter works and essays, such as 远去的白帆 (The White Sail). His works were collected into an anthology in 1995. In 1998, he completed A Walk Unto Chaos to much acclaim. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Slavic.

He was inducted into the "Who's Who" list in 1988.

References