ABSTRACT
In 1957, the government press had published Wu Chiang's novel Red Sun, based on his army experience. It appeared in English translation and also in Japanese, in editions published by the Foreign Languages Press in Peking. It disappeared in all its editions, however, when the Cultural Revolution began. In Wu Chiang's case, it even included some repercussions of the revolution that brought down the Manchu dynasty the year he was born. Wu Chiang's political life began when he and some similarly afflicted schoolmates, tired of being ridiculed by boys from more enlightened families, tried to cut their pigtails off and were severely punished by their fathers. This took him to Honan in central China where he became a member of a propaganda group that toured the villages doing anti-Japanese play lets, some of which he wrote. He left the army after fourteen years, returned to Shanghai, where he served in various Party posts and in the Writers Association.
