Shi Tiesheng
Shi Tiesheng (史铁生)
Shi Tiesheng is a renowned writer in China.
He was born in Beijing in 1951. His legs became paralyzed when he was young and he later developed kidney disease and uremia. Confined to bed, Shi tried his hand at creative writing. Shortly after the publication of his maiden work The Jurist Professor and His Wife in 1979, he wrote some short stories and essays that caught the critics' attention.
In 1983 My Faraway Qingpingwan, a short story about the profound friendship between an educated youth and a group of peasants, won him a national prize. In 2002, Shi was presented with an award for Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Chinese language literature.
His short essay The Temple of Earth and Me inspired and moved tens of thousands of Chinese people and is cited in Chinese school textbooks. He once said: "My profession is illness. My part time job is writing."
He passed away early in the morning of Dec. 31 in Beijing, following a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 59. Shi had made a will donating his backbone and brain to medical research institution, and offering his liver for transplant.
