19 Facts About Wang Ruowang

Wang Ruowang was a Chinese author and dissident who was imprisoned various times for political reasons by both the Kuomintang and the Communist government of China for advocating reform and liberalization.

Wang Ruowang rejoined the party in 1979, but in 1987 he was again expelled by Deng Xiaoping for promoting "bourgeois liberalization".

In 1932, when Wang Ruowang was fifteen years old, he was expelled from school for taking part in a student demonstration.

Wang Ruowang joined the Communist Youth League later that year.

Some Communists imprisoned with Wang Ruowang became successful officials after the Communist victory in 1949: one became the governor of Guangdong, and another became the deputy governor of Anhui.

Wang Ruowang joined the CCP in order to "fight evil, autocracy and oppression", but was persecuted during the Yan'an Rectification Movement for writing for a controversial wall newspaper, Light Cavalry, which was condemned by Party leaders for discussing dark and unsavory aspects of life in Yan'an.

Wang Ruowang returned to Shanghai, where he worked at the East China Bureau Propaganda Department.

Wang Ruowang became a co-editor of a prominent local newspaper, and gained a reputation as an essayist and literary critic.

In 1956, after Mao encouraged writers to criticize the CCP in the "Hundred Flowers Campaign", Wang Ruowang published ten articles critical of the Communist Party.

Wang Ruowang was imprisoned for four years in the same prison building that the Kuomintang had imprisoned him in during the 1930s, enduring conditions that he later described as "fascist brutality".

Wang Ruowang remained a political outcast until 1979, following Deng Xiaoping's ascent to power, when Wang Ruowang was allowed to rejoin the Communist Party as part of a national programme to rehabilitate those unjustly persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.

Wang Ruowang resumed his literary career, becoming a member of the councils of both the Shanghai Writers' Association and the China Writers Association.

Wang Ruowang was one of the few senior leaders of the Tiananmen protests who did not escape China.

In 1992, following pressure from the American government, Wang Ruowang was allowed to leave his home in Shanghai, in order to accept a temporary position as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, in New York City.

Wang Ruowang lived as an exile in the United States from then until his death, but always dreamed of returning to China.

Wang Ruowang traveled widely through North America, attempting to unite other exiled Chinese dissidents in a common cause, but was unsuccessful.

Wang Ruowang died on December 19,2001, two weeks after his doctors discovered that he had terminal lung cancer.

Wang Ruowang was sent to Elmhurst Hospital in New York City, where he died.

Wang Ruowang was survived by his second wife, Yang Zi, and seven children.