- Lu Jiamin
Lu Jiamin (born
Beijing , 1946) is a Chinese dissident and author, most famous for his best-selling 2004 novel "Wolf Totem ", which he wrote under the pseudonym Jiang Rong.citation|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/22/china.features11|date=2007-11-22 |accessdate=2008-03-14|periodical=The Guardian|last=Watts|first=Jonathan|title=Jiang Rong tells Jonathan Watts about working as a shepherd] citation|periodical=The China Post|url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/art/books/2008/03/11/146618/Chinese-ex-prisoner.htm|date=2008-03-11 |accessdate=2008-03-14|title=Chinese ex-prisoner now global literary star|last=Bougon|first=Francois] He is married to fellow novelistZhang Kangkang .citation|last=Hill|first=Justin|authorlink=Justin Hill|title=Jiang Rong: The hour of the wolf|periodical=The Independent|date=2008-03-21 |accessdate=2008-03-25|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/jiang-rong-the-hour-of-the-wolf-798697.html]Early life
Lu's parents both came from
Jiading , a town outside of Shanghai. They both joined theCommunist Party of China in Shanghai in the 1920s, and both his parents served in the army during theSecond Sino-Japanese War , fighting against theEmpire of Japan . After the war, his mother became involved in education, while his father rose to the position of bureau chief in the Ministry of Health. His mother died of cancer when he was just 11.Lu first attracted negative attention from the authorities as early as 1964, while still a student; he was denounced as "counter-revolutionary" for an essay he had written. He went on to join Red Guards, even though his father had been targeted by those same Red Guards as a
capitalist roader ; however, when the Red Guards began confiscating books and participating inbook burning s, Lu often secreted the books away, adding them to his own private collection. In 1967, as a 21-year old high school graduate, Lu volunteered to go toEast Ujimqin Banner inXilin Gol League ,Inner Mongolia , where he remained for eleven years, until the age of 33. By his own admission, he chose the remote location of Inner Mongolia rather than the more popularHeilongjiang inNortheastern China so that he could bring his books with him; he feared that if we went to Heilongjiang, he would have to live in army barracks, and might get his books confiscated.citation|title=A Novel, by Someone, Takes China by Storm|periodical=The New York Times|date=2005-11-03 |accessdate=2007-04-20|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/03/books/03jian.html?ex=1168318800&en=2530cd3ee76a49de&ei=5070|last=French|first=Howard|authorlink=Howard French]Writing "Wolf Totem"
Lu began thinking about and writing up the ideas behind "Wolf Totem" as early as 1971, while still in Inner Mongolia, but did not yet begin to write anything down.citation|last=Wu|first=Fei|title=姜戎：用半条命著《狼图腾》 (Jiang Rong: "I spent half my life writing "Wolf Totem")|periodical=Xinhua News|date=
2004-05-26 |accessdate=2007-04-20|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2004-05/26/content_1489801.htm] He returned toBeijing in 1978, where he participated in theBeijing Spring movement, becoming editor-in-chief of the eponymous literary journal "Beijing Spring". A year later, he entered theChinese Academy of Social Sciences . After his graduation, he became an associate professor at theChina Labor College . He was arrested for his role in theTiananmen Square protests of 1989 , but was released in January 1991 without ever having been tried, along withLiu Suli andChen Po as well as student leadersXiong Yan andZhou Suofen . [citation|title=The Decline of Communism in China: Legitimacy Crisis, 1977-1989|first=X.L.|last=Ding|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=ISBN 0521451388|date=1994|pages=59-60] [citation|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/59987218.html?dids=59987218:59987218&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+06%2C+1990&author=DAVID+HOLLEY&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Beijing+Trials+Seen+as+Threat+to+U.S.+Ties+China%3A+Prosecution+of+pro-democracy+leaders+may+block+any+improvement+in+relations%2C+a+key+congressman+says.&pqatl=google|date=1990-12-06 |accessdate=2008-03-18|title=Beijing Trials Seen as Threat to U.S. Ties|last=Holley|first=David|periodical=Los Angeles Times] [citation|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1046346.html|periodical=The Washington Post|title=Chinese Activists Sentenced; Student Leader Wang Given 4-Year Term|last=Sun|first=Lena H.|date=1991-12-27 |accessdate=2008-03-18] He finally produced a complete first draft of "Wolf Totem" 1997, and only submitted the final draft to his publisher at the end of 2003. His hardest work on the novel was done in the final six years; his wife, herself a famous novelist, described how he "locked himself in his office every day and refused to tell me what he was doing".citation|title=A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Beijing's Unwanted Best Seller|periodical=Der Spiegel|last=Kremb|first=Jürgen|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,407184,00.html|date=2006-03-21 |accessdate=2007-04-20]Though Lu often agreed to give interviews to both domestic and foreign media, he refused to allow pictures of himself to be published. Until 2006, only five people even knew his true identity; he never revealed his real name to the media, though his identity became known to China's
Ministry of Public Security . A number of other writers took advantage of Lu's anonymity to write fake sequels to "Wolf Totem", including two books both entitled "Wolf Totem 2", as well as the 250,000-character long "Great Wolf of the Plains" [Chinese title: 草原狼王. ISBN 7807013370] all with the imprint of the Changjiang Arts Publishing House. As a result, in April 2007, he issued a statement which denounced all such "sequels" as fraudulent; he indicated that he was doing research for another book, but would not be publishing anything new in the short term. [citation|last=Jiang|first=Rong|title=姜戎发表郑重声明揭露《狼图腾》伪书 (Jiang Rong issues serious statement denouncing "Wolf Totem" fakes)|periodical=Xinhua News|date=2007-04-12 |accessdate=2007-04-20|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2007-04/12/content_5968063.htm] His identity finally became widely known in November 2007, after he won the firstMan Asian Literary Prize ; a photograph he had submitted to the jury, along with his real name, were published by newspapers all over the world. However, he remained unable to obtain a passport, and thus could not leavemainland China to attend the awards ceremony.Political views
Lu describes himself as a "critical left-wing thinker", and remains a supporter of democracy and individualism; in a 2005 interview with British newspaper "
The Daily Telegraph ", he expressed his belief that China risked becoming "likeNazi Germany " if it did not further democratise. He also indicated his admiration forLi Yuchun , a 2005 participant in the Chinese televised singing competition "Super Girl" whose idiosyncratic style and choice of songs gained her popularity and ultimately led her to win first prize in the contest; he described her as a "good symbol for Chinese society".citation|last=Spencer|first=Richard|title=Best-seller urges Chinese to release their inner wolf|periodical=The Daily Telegraph|date=2005-10-29 |accessdate=2006-04-20|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/29/wchina29.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/29/ixworld.html] Authors he names as having influenced his work include Balzac, Tolstoy,Jack London , andJane Austen .References
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