Literature & Ideas
Distinguished
Lao She
1899 β 1966
Novelist and dramatist of Rickshaw Boy and Teahouse
Distinguished is level 3 of 4 in the China Hall of Fame: sustained excellence over a career, widely honoured at home. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A Beijing writer whose novel Rickshaw Boy and play Teahouse captured the city's ordinary people with humour and sympathy.
Lao She taught in London in the 1920s, where he began writing novels. Rickshaw Boy, about a rickshaw puller's struggle to make a decent living, became one of the best-known Chinese novels internationally, and his play Teahouse is a classic of the Chinese stage.
He died in 1966, early in the Cultural Revolution, after being publicly attacked and beaten by Red Guards.
He died in 1966, early in the Cultural Revolution, after being publicly attacked and beaten by Red Guards.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it.