Death of Ba Jin
The Chinese writer Ba Jin has died. He took up writing "to express my feelings, my love and hatred, and to let out the fire within me.'' His works, which attacked social inequality and the effects of war on the lives of ordinary people, were too revolutionary for the Chinese communists who forced the rewriting of some of his books. Little was heard of him for many years, until he was persecuted again during the "Cultural Revolution" when he was reported to have been forced to kneel on broken glass. There is a short obituary in the Guardian.
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5349362,00.html