Wu Ningkun
Encyclopedia
Wu Ningkun born in 1920, Yangzhou
, China
, is Professor Emeritus of English at the Institute of International Relations
in Beijing
, where he has taught since 1956. During the 1980s, he held Visiting Fellowships at Cambridge University, Northwestern University
and the University of California
. In 1990, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from Manchester College, Indiana. In 1992, he was Mansfield Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Montana. He has frequently lectured at Cambridge, Columbia
, Stanford
, Harvard
and other universities. His publications include the memoir, A Single Tear - A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China, written in collaboration with his wife, Li Yikai (李怡楷); scholarly essays in English and Chinese; and translations from English into Chinese and vice versa, among them a translation of The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
. He was a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, but resigned in 2006.
, Jiangsu Province, China. In 1939, at the end of his sophomore year at the National Southwestern Associated University
, Kunming
, he volunteered for the Chinese National Revolutionary Army
as interpreter for the American Flying Tigers
. After the Second World War, in 1946, he took up his study of English literature again at Manchester College (Indiana) and the University of Chicago
. In 1951, while working on a dissertation about T. S. Eliot
, he was invited to return to China and accept an academic position at Yenching University
, Beijing, replacing an American professor who was forced to depart due to the Korean War
. He decided to interrupt his doctoral studies and accept the invitation: "The lure of a meaningful life in a brave new world outweighed the attraction of a doctorate and an academic future in an alien land." In his memoir he recounts an anecdote about T. D. Lee
, one of the fellow graduate students who had come to see him off for his journey:
Not long after his return, however, Wu got his first taste of what "brain washing" could mean, in the form of enforced "thought reform" sessions.
In 1952, after one year at Yenching University, Wu was transferred to Nankai University
, Tianjin
, where he met his wife, Li Yikai. The couple married in 1954. During the 1955 Campaign to Uproot Hidden Counterrevolutionaries Wu was suspected of having been a Nationalist spy, or of still being an American spy, and he was denounced as the number-one "hidden counterrevolutionary" at Nankai University. In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers Campaign
, he was one of the intellectuals who - despite initial misgivings - spoke up for freedom of speech. This led to his formal denouncement as an "ultra-rightist" during the Anti-Rightist campaign
of September 1957, and in the spring of 1958 he was sent to a state prison farm in Heilongjiang
for "corrective education through hard labor". In 1961, during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward
, he was released from prison.
During the Cultural Revolution
(1966–1976) Wu and his family were again persecuted, as were so many other intellectuals and their families.
In 1980 he was rehabilitated, and he resumed his former teaching post at the Institute of International Relations. He published some elegant essays and translations in The World of English, a Beijing-based journal. In early 1989, he published his English translation of Fang Lizhi's essay "Capri Revisited" in The World of English.
Yangzhou
Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, is Professor Emeritus of English at the Institute of International Relations
University of International Relations
University of International Relations is an institute of higher education located in Beijing that was first established in 1949 to train foreign affairs cadres...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, where he has taught since 1956. During the 1980s, he held Visiting Fellowships at Cambridge University, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
and the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
. In 1990, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from Manchester College, Indiana. In 1992, he was Mansfield Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Montana. He has frequently lectured at Cambridge, Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Stanford
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and other universities. His publications include the memoir, A Single Tear - A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China, written in collaboration with his wife, Li Yikai (李怡楷); scholarly essays in English and Chinese; and translations from English into Chinese and vice versa, among them a translation of The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
. He was a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, but resigned in 2006.
Short biography
Wu Ningkun was born on August 14, 1920 (lunar calendar), YangzhouYangzhou
Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across...
, Jiangsu Province, China. In 1939, at the end of his sophomore year at the National Southwestern Associated University
National Southwestern Associated University
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University, merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha, and later National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming...
, Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
, he volunteered for the Chinese National Revolutionary Army
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
as interpreter for the American Flying Tigers
Flying Tigers
The 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force in 1941–1942, famously nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots from the United States Army , Navy , and Marine Corps , recruited under presidential sanction and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The ground crew and headquarters...
. After the Second World War, in 1946, he took up his study of English literature again at Manchester College (Indiana) and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. In 1951, while working on a dissertation about T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, he was invited to return to China and accept an academic position at Yenching University
Yenching University
Yenching University was a university in Beijing, China. It integrated three Christian colleges in the city in 1919. Yenching is an alternative name of Beijing - derived from its status as capital of Yan state, one of the seven Warring States from 5th century BC to 3rd century BC.The university...
, Beijing, replacing an American professor who was forced to depart due to the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. He decided to interrupt his doctoral studies and accept the invitation: "The lure of a meaningful life in a brave new world outweighed the attraction of a doctorate and an academic future in an alien land." In his memoir he recounts an anecdote about T. D. Lee
Tsung-Dao Lee
Tsung-Dao Lee is a Chinese born-American physicist, well known for his work on parity violation, the Lee Model, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion physics, nontopological solitons and soliton stars....
, one of the fellow graduate students who had come to see him off for his journey:
"Why aren't you coming home to serve the new China, T. D.?" He answered with a knowing smile, "I don't want to have my brains washed by others." As I didn't know how brains could be washed, I did not at the time find the idea very daunting.
Not long after his return, however, Wu got his first taste of what "brain washing" could mean, in the form of enforced "thought reform" sessions.
In 1952, after one year at Yenching University, Wu was transferred to Nankai University
Nankai University
Nankai University , commonly known as Nankai, is a public research university based in Tianjin on mainland China. Founded in 1919 by educators Zhang Boling and Yan Fansun , Nankai University is a member of the Nankai serial schools. It is the alma mater of former Chinese Premier and key historical...
, Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
, where he met his wife, Li Yikai. The couple married in 1954. During the 1955 Campaign to Uproot Hidden Counterrevolutionaries Wu was suspected of having been a Nationalist spy, or of still being an American spy, and he was denounced as the number-one "hidden counterrevolutionary" at Nankai University. In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers Campaign
Hundred Flowers Campaign
The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement, refers mainly to a brief six weeks in the People's Republic of China in the early summer of 1957 during which the Communist Party of China encouraged a variety of views and solutions to national policy issues, launched...
, he was one of the intellectuals who - despite initial misgivings - spoke up for freedom of speech. This led to his formal denouncement as an "ultra-rightist" during the Anti-Rightist campaign
Anti-Rightist Movement
The Anti-Rightist Movement of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s and early 1960s consisted of a series of campaigns to purge alleged "rightists" within the Communist Party of China and abroad...
of September 1957, and in the spring of 1958 he was sent to a state prison farm in Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
for "corrective education through hard labor". In 1961, during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
, he was released from prison.
During the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
(1966–1976) Wu and his family were again persecuted, as were so many other intellectuals and their families.
In 1980 he was rehabilitated, and he resumed his former teaching post at the Institute of International Relations. He published some elegant essays and translations in The World of English, a Beijing-based journal. In early 1989, he published his English translation of Fang Lizhi's essay "Capri Revisited" in The World of English.
External links
- A Single Tear - A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China
- Independent Chinese PEN Center: Wu Ningkun
- Wu Ningkun - Essays, poems, translations into Chinese
- A New Diary of a Madman - Ha Jin's The Crazed, reviewed by Wu Ningkun
- CNN interview in February 1997
- Full transcript of the 1997 interview
- "22 Years as a Class Enemy" by The New York Times