author
Zi Ye
1910–1939
A major voice of China’s left-wing literature, this young novelist and playwright wrote with unusual force about rural hardship, social injustice, and the lives of ordinary people. His work is remembered not just for its realism, but for the urgency of a life cut short far too soon.
1 Audiobook
豐收
by Zi Ye
About the author
Born in Hunan in 1910, Ye Zi was the pen name of a Chinese writer also known as Yu Helin. Biographical sources agree that political violence shaped his early life: after the turmoil of 1927, several family members were killed, and he left home while still a teenager.
He went on to become part of China’s left-wing literary world in Shanghai. Ye Zi wrote fiction and plays, and is especially associated with stories about rural struggle and the pressures faced by poor and working people. His best-known work in English-language catalogs is Feng Shou (Harvest), and his reputation rests on the emotional directness and social concern of his writing.
Ye Zi died in 1939, still very young. Even with a short career, he is remembered as an important modern Chinese author whose work captured both personal suffering and the wider unrest of his time.