15 Facts About Liu Shahe

Yu Xuntan, known by his pen name Liu Shahe, was a Chinese writer and poet.

Liu Shahe co-founded the poetry magazine Stars in 1956, but was denounced as a "filial descendant of the landlord class" when the Anti-Rightist Campaign began in 1957.

Liu Shahe resumed publishing in 1978, and his collection, Poems of Liu Shahe, won the National Prize for Poetry.

Liu Shahe's parents were small landowners from Jintang County near Chengdu, and the family moved back to Jintang in 1935.

Liu Shahe's father worked for the Kuomintang government, and for that reason was killed by the Communist Party during the Land Reform Movement.

Liu Shahe entered Sichuan University in 1949, majoring in agricultural chemistry.

Liu Shahe began writing in 1948, and served as an editor of a supplement to the newspaper Western Sichuan Peasant Daily.

Liu Shahe became a professional writer in 1952, and joined the predecessor of the Communist Youth League of China that same year.

In 1955, Liu published his first poem, which was well received by critics, and became a poet almost exclusively.

Liu Shahe wrote the poem series entitled "Grass and Stars" for the inaugural issue of the magazine, but was criticized soon after its publication.

Liu Shahe continued to compose poems in this period, but most of them were lost.

Liu Shahe wrote less poetry after the mid-1980s, and spent much time publishing and commenting on modern Taiwanese poetry.

Liu Shahe was an outspoken critic of the simplification of Chinese characters.

Liu Shahe wrote a dedicated column entitled "Simplified Characters are Unreasonable" in the Chinese-language edition of the Financial Times.

Liu Shahe died in Chengdu on 23 November 2019 from complications of throat cancer, aged 88.