Ba Jin
Ba Jin was born in Chengdu, Sichuan into a five-generation household. As a child Ba Jin was taught to read and write first by his mother, and later by privately engaged house tutors. It was not until the death of this grandfather in 1917, causing a power struggle which ended with an elder uncle emerging victorious, that he was released to explore the world. As a youngster, Ba Jin was deeply influenced by Piotr Kropotkin's pamphlet, "An Appeal to the Young", which he read at age fifteen. Impressed by Emma Goldman, whom he later referred to as his "spiritual mother", Ba Jin started a lifelong correspondence with her.