Chinese anarchist Ba Jin dies age 101 in Shanghai
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Tuesday October 18, 2005 22:23 by Joe Black - WSM (personal capacity)
A look at anarchism and Ba Jin
Xinhua has reported the death of the Chinese anarchist Ba Jin after a six year battle with cancer. In 1919 he was part of the Chinese anarchist group 'Company of Equals' that organised demonstrations against the warlords and distributed revolutionary leaflets.
Ba Jin
Chinese anarchist Ba Jin dies age 101 in Shanghai
Xinhua has reported the death of the Chinese anarchist Ba Jin
after a six year battle with cancer. Ba Jin was born Li Yaotang on
1904, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province but changed his name to taking Ba
Jin which combines the names of two Russian anarchists. The first
syllable in Chinese is that of the surname of Mikhail Bakunin and the
last syllable that of Kropotkin. He translated Kropotkin's work into
Chinese.
Despite his anarchism Ba Jin became one of the most revered
writers under Chinese Leninism although he was purged during the
Cultural Revolution only reemerging in 1977. But both before and
after the Cultural Revolution he was favoured by the Communist Party
(in 1981 he was elected chairman of the Chinese Writers Association
The Chinese press in accounts of his death not only fails to mention
his anarchism but even offers an alternative explanation for his
name[1]!
He was the last survivor of the first generation of Chinese
writers to use the Chinese of the streets rather than formal Chinese
of the court in their writings. His writings were translated into at
least 30 foreign languages.
In his dedication to the American anarchist Emma Goldman he wrote
"when I was fifteen years old, you woke me up and I escaped disaster
at the last moment". He wanted to " dedicate my new collection of
short stories and this letter to you"[2]. He maintained a
corresponence with her for some time in which amongst other things
they discussed the Russian revolution.
His popularity was for his novels, in particular his trilogy
Torrent written between 1931 and 1940. This includes 'Family'.
These works attacked the evils of feudal China. Ba Jin had been part
of the pre-revolution intellectual movement that attacked
'traditional' China (May 4th Movement) and looked to the
revolutionary movements of the west for alternatives. In 1919 he
was part of the Chinese anarchist group 'Company of Equals' that
organised demonstrations against the warlords and distributed
revolutionary leaflets. In the early 1920's he published 'Tragedy of
Chicago' - a history of the state murder of the Chicago anarchists
after Mayday 1886.
After the eclipse of Chinese anarchism and in exile in Paris in
1927 he wrote his first novel, 'Destruction,' which is the story of a
depressed young Shanghai anarchist. In this period he met the
American anarchist Alexander Berkman and took part in the campaigns
to try and halt the execution of Italian -American anarchists Sacco
and Vanzetti.
In Shangai in the mid' 30's he had initially resisted join the
Chinese Writers Association and was denounced as a result. His
reasons were connected with his enthusaism for the Spanish Revolution
and the counter revolutionary role the Communist Party was playing
there. He right not to join was defended by Lu Xun but after the
Marco Polo bridge incident in 1937 and the subsequent war with Japan
he felt compelled to join.
Ba Jin was from a wealthy family and his later anarchism seem to
have been intellectual rather than activist. In a letter to CIRA
(Commission des Relations Internationales Anarchistes) in 1949 he
wrote that he was isolated and that the only active libertarian
movement in China at that time was in Fukien[3]. At the time he was
translating Kroptkins works into an illustrated set of volumes.
After 1957 all references to anarchism - however casual - were
removed from new editions of his books. This included changing the
titles of books characters were reading and changing the images hung
on the walls of the rooms they were in.
In the 1980's he told reporters he had written a book about his
experiences during the cultural revolution which would be published
after his death. ). On his reappearance after the Cultural Revolution
"he spoke his mind fearlessly in a long memoir serialised in a Hong
Kong newspaper between 1978 and 1986"[4]. The book he said was
dedicated to his wife who died during the Cultural Revolution after
being denied medical treatment.
Joe Black
(Written for Anarkismo.net)
1 Xinhuanet -
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/17/content_3638116.htm
2 Partial excerpt of English translation of Ba Jin's dedication to
Emma Goldman -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Exhibition/jin.html
3 Pa Kin. "Lettre de LI Pei kan à la C.R.I.A. [Commission des
Relations Internationales Anarchistes]", 18 mars 1949
http://raforum.apinc.org/article.php3?id_article=2200
4 Manorma online -
http://www.manoramaonline.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=manorama
/MmArticle/CommonFullStory&cid=1129601203411
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4it would be very interesting to prepare an edition with some of Ba Jin anarchist articles... would anyone be interested in working on that?
The Venezuala paper hte Daily Journal published an article with some additional information. From this
"He rejected Marxism, saying its dictatorship of the proletariat was “at its marrow just the dictatorship of a small number of Communist Party members.” He also wrote, “We op-pose the Communist Party because it is not communal, not radical and smacks of class compromise.”"
In 1954, Ba publicly renounced his faith in anarchism, although many scholars, including Nanjing University’s Lu, believe that in his heart he maintained his anarchists beliefs to the end."
don't forget, Ba Jin was a active esperantist too.
ne forgesu, Ba Jin estis aktiva esperantisto ankaux.
No olvideis que Ba Jin fue también un activo esperantista.
Mitch posted a very interesting article on Chinese anarchists in the USA as a comment to this story. As it was an interesting and important article (so little being avaible on this subject) it has been upgraded to an article in its own right and can be found at