16 Facts About Sha Fei

Sha Fei was a Chinese photojournalist and war photographer best known for his work with the Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Sha Fei's father, Situ Junxun, was a small business owner.

Sha Fei felt he needed to learn a trade to support his family when his father's business went under in 1926, and studied at a radio school.

Sha Fei worked at a radio station in Shantou from 1932 to 1936, and became interested in photography, preferring a style more realistic than the international style he saw in magazines.

Sha Fei went to Shanghai, and in the fall entered the Department of Western Painting of the Shanghai Fine Arts Academy.

Sha Fei became well known for his photographs of blind beggars, poverty stricken children, and emaciated peasants.

Sha Fei's photo was later the template for the cover art on Lu Xun's collected works.

Sha Fei was appointed head of the Resistance Daily Press, the predecessor of the People's Daily, and covered the battles of the Eighth Route Army.

Sha Fei founded the Jin-Cha-Ji Pictorial, which first appeared on July 7,1942.

Sha Fei took thousands of photographs of battle scenes, Japanese brutality, common people caught in hard circumstances, high communist leaders, and foreign visitors.

Sha Fei ran classes to train a cohort of photojournalists.

Sha Fei befriended Bethune and took many photos of him.

Sha Fei was suffering from mental illness after years of highly stressful work in the war zone.

Sha Fei was convicted of murder and executed two months later, at the age of 37.

Sha Fei was careful to preserve and catalog his negatives.

Sha Fei kept those of Lu Xun on himself, which were accidentally buried with him.