Hu Lancheng

Hu Lancheng (traditional Chinese: 胡蘭成; simplified Chinese: 胡兰成; pinyin: Hú Lánchéng) (Feb 28 1906 – July 25 1981) was a Chinese writer, editor, and was married to the novelist Eileen Chang from 1943 to 1947.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War he collaborated with the Japanese, serving briefly in the puppet government in China headed by Wang Jingwei in 1939-40. This history made many Chinese regard him as a Hanjian or traitor. , and led to intense controversy regarding the value of his work (including the non-political ones).

After the war, he went into hiding, eventually fled to Japan. In the early 1970s he taught in Chinese Culture University in Taiwan for several years, until popular pressure forced him to return to Japan, where he died in Tokyo in 1981.

Works

• 《今生今世》(This Life, These Times), a memoir;
• 《禪是一枝花》, a study in Buddhism;
• 《中國文學史話》, a study on the history of Chinese literature ;
• 《山河歲月》

See also

• Eileen Chang

References

• Words and Images, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 11.3 (2003) 675-716, where Taiwanese writer Chu Tien-wen talks about Hu's influence on her.
• Excerpt of ‘This Life, These Times’, Renditions (ISSN 0377-3515), No. 45, translated by D.E. Pollard