14 Facts About Liu Yichang

Liu Yichang is considered the founder of Hong Kong's modern literature.

Liu Yichang was a prolific columnist who edited 13 newspapers in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, on average writing 13,000 Chinese characters per day.

Liu Yichang's father was Liu Hao, known as Huaizheng, and he had an older brother.

Worried about rumours that Japan was going to draft Chinese men into its army, Liu Yichang's father sent him to Chongqing, the war-time capital of the Republic of China.

Liu Yichang spent the next few months travelling through Japanese-occupied areas and across the war front, finally reaching Chongqing in the spring of 1942.

Liu Yichang returned to Shanghai after the surrender of Japan in 1945.

Liu Yichang continued to work for Sao Dang Bao in Shanghai, by then renamed as Peace Daily.

Liu Yichang planned to continue his publishing business and brought many manuscripts with him, but found that Hong Kong lacked a market for serious literature.

Liu Yichang later became editor-in-chief for Federation Daily in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he met the dancer Lo Pai-wun and married her in 1957.

In 1957, Liu Yichang returned to and settled in Hong Kong with his wife, working as editor-in-chief for the newspaper supplements of the Hong Kong Times and the Sing Tao Daily.

Liu Yichang created the monthly journal Hong Kong Literature in 1985, and served as its chief editor until 2000.

Liu Yichang, who had thought that only popular literature could survive in Hong Kong, said he wrote the novel to "entertain himself".

Liu Yichang wrote on average 13,000 Chinese characters per day.

On 8 June 2018, Liu Yichang died at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan, Hong Kong, aged 99.