Shen Congwen
Shen Congwen was a particularly apolitical writer. In the early years of the People's Republic of China his resistance to the heavy politicization of the arts lead to him being publicly attacked in big character posters and subsequently to a mental breakdown. In early 1949, Shen drank kerosene and cut his throat and wrist in a suicide attempt. He never published another work of fiction, unable to write stories fitting the political requirements of the new regime.