page_title: Wu Zuguang
section_title: Persecution
hierarchical_section_title: Wu Zuguang / Persecution
caption_attribution_description: English: Xin Fengxia, Wu Zuguang and children
context_page_description: Wu Zuguang was a Chinese playwright, film director and social critic who has been called a "legendary figure in Chinese art and literary circles". He authored more than 40 plays and film scripts, including the patriotic drama City of Phoenix, one of the most influential plays during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and Return on a Snowy Night, which is generally considered his masterpiece. He directed The Soul of the Nation, Hong Kong's first colour film, based on his own historical drama Song of Righteousness.
  He was also well known as an outspoken critic of China's cultural policies, both of the Kuomintang and the Communist governments, and was repeatedly persecuted as a result. He fled to Hong Kong in 1945 to avoid being captured by KMT agents, and returned to Beijing after the foundation of the People's Republic China in 1949. He was denounced as a "rightist" during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and performed hard labour in the "Great Northern Wilderness" for three years, and was again persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. His wife, the celebrated pingju actress Xin Fengxia, refused to divorce him and became disabled after undergoing beatings and penal labour.
context_section_description: During Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign, Wu was denounced as a "rightist" in 1957 and sent to the Great Northern Wilderness in Heilongjiang to be "reformed through labour." His crime was to criticize the Communist Party's control of the theatre and to argue that the neihang (experts) should have a greater role in such matters. He was called an enemy of the Party, even by his renowned colleague Tian Han. Tian later referenced Wu's work approvingly, which is seen by some as an implicit apology, and was himself persecuted to death. Xin Fengxia was pressured to divorce him, but refused. Citing a legendary love story from one of her operas, she said "Wang Baochuan waited 18 years for Xue Pinggui, and I will wait 28 years for Wu Zuguang." As a result, she was herself labeled a rightist and went through struggle sessions.
  Wu returned to Beijing after three years of hard labour, but six years later, China fell into the even greater turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966. Xin Fengxia and Wu Zuguang were both denounced at the beginning of the period. She became disabled below her left knee after a severe beating. Their friend Lao She drowned himself after being similarly tortured. During the tumultuous decade Wu and Xin both served years of forced labour. In December 1975, she became paralyzed after suffering a stroke, and Wu took care of her for the rest of her life.
caption: Wu (center), his wife Xin Fengxia, and their three children
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