ZHANG TIANYI

Wade-Giles Chang T'ien-i born Sept. 10, 1906, Chiang-ning [now Nanking], Kiangsu province, China died April 28, 1985 Chinese writer whose brilliant, socially realistic short stories achieved considerable renown in the 1930s. Zhang was born into a scholarly family whose fortunes had declined. He received his education while wandering with his family throughout China, learning the various dialects of the country and meeting people of all social backgrounds. In 1924 Zhang moved to Peking. Stimulated by the intellectual activity there, he began to write and produced his first short story, the quite successful San-jih-pan chih meng (A Dream of Three-and-a-Half Days). This story, like the many others he was to create over the next 15 years, was written in a realistic and direct manner, reproducing flawlessly the dialects and social patterns that he had observed as a child. Zhang's career as a short-story writer was curtailed in 1943, when tuberculosis forced him to retire. After recuperating, he was assigned to a trusted position in the new communist regime as a writer of children's plays. He also served as editor in chief of the magazine Jenmin wen-xue (People's Literature) from 1957.