Mao Dun (or Mao Tun) (1896–1981)

Chinese writer. He wrote a trilogy of novellas, published as Shi (Eclipse) (1930); a best-selling novel, Ziye (Midnight) (1932), about financial exploiters in the decadent Shanghai of the time; and a collection of short stories. In 1930 he helped to organize the influential League of Left-Wing Writers. After the Communists came to power in 1949 he was China's first minister of culture 1949–65, and founder editor of the literary journal People's Literature 1949–53.

He was born in Wuzhen, Zhejiang (Chekiang) province, educated at Beijing (Peking) University, and became a founder member of the Literary Research Society 1920, and editor of the Short Story Monthly 1921–23. Moving to Shanghai, he taught a course of fiction at Shanghai College, and became editor of the Hankou (Hankow) National Daily, but in 1926 he had to go underground because of his communist sympathies.

During the Cultural Revolution he was kept under house arrest in Beijing 1966–78.