Mao Dun

Mao Dun

Mao Dun (茅盾), a native of Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, whose real name was Shen Dehong 沈德鸿, was a noted writer, art theoretician and translator. Born in 1896, he began his career as a writer in 1916. In 1920, he translated The Constitution of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union into Chinese, which then became a criterion of The Constitution of the Communist Party of China. One year later, in Shanghai, Mao became the first writer to join the Communist Party of China. In 1921, he published his magnum opus, Disillusion, and in 1937 became editor-in-chief of the magazine Art Battlefield. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he acted as China's first minister of culture, as well as the chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. On March 27, 1981, he died of illness in Beijing.