Selected Works of Ai Qing

Author: Ai Qing / Zhang Yongjian (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: Ai Qing, born Jiang Zhenghan, styled Yangyuan, styled Haicheng, used the pen name "Ai Qing" starting from the publication of "Dayanhe—My Nurse" in 1933. He was born on March 27, 1919, in Fantian Jiang Village, Jinhua County, Zhejiang Province, into a middle-class landlord family. His father, Jiang Jingwang (1889—1940), possessed the characteristics of a feudal landlord—moderate, conservative, and miser—while also being a believer in the "reformist movement." Ai Qing grew up in such a feudal family, where the winds of capitalist new thoughts blew, yet feudal old morals were deeply rooted. Due to his difficult birth, the fortune-teller said his fate was "to harm his parents." His superstitious father, to turn bad luck into good, sent him to be fostered by a poor peasant woman, "Dayehuo," until he was five years old. This period of life made him "infected with the melancholy of the peasants" and "formed an inseparable bond with the impoverished peasants of China." In 1915, Ai Qing began learning to read at the village primary school and later attended village and town primary schools. In 1925, he enrolled in Jinhua Provincial No. 7 Middle School. Ai Qing had always liked painting since childhood, seeking solace in art. In September 1921, he enrolled in the Painting Department of Hangzhou National West Lake Art Academy. After less than a semester of study, Principal Lin Fengmian recommended that he go to France to study painting.