Bo Yang

Bo Yang ( Chinese  柏楊 , Pinyin Băi Yáng , W.-G. Băi Yang ; born as: Guo Libang ( 郭立邦 , Guō Lìbāng , Kuo Li-pang ); born March 7, 1920 in Kaifeng , Henan , Republic of China , today : People's Republic of China ; † April 29, 2008 in Taipei , Taiwan ) was a Chinese cultural critic and author .

Life

Bo Yang was born Guo Libang in Kaifeng, Henan. Some sources give the city of Huixian , part of today's Xinxiang , Henan, as the birthplace of Bo Yang. He later changed his name to Guo Yidong ( Chinese  郭 衣 洞 ), presumably because he had fallen out with his father and stepmother. In 1949 he went to Taiwan, where he began to use the pseudonym Bo Yang in 1960 , under which he wrote critical essays.

One of the best-known works by Bo Yang, especially in the entire Chinese-speaking area, is the book The Ugly Chinese ( Chinese  醜陋 的 中國 人 Chǒulòu de Zhōngguórén). It deals with the central theme of his cultural criticism: destructive forms of competition between the Chinese.

Because of his criticism of Chiang Kai-shek ( KMT ) he was imprisoned for nine years on the Green Island ( Chinese  綠島 "Lǜdǎo"). The trigger for this was his translation of a comic strip by Popeye , which he had started. In it, Popeye is on a boat at sea with the baby "Swee'pea" in her arms. Popeye points to a distant island and says, "I will be king of this island and you will be my sweet little prince." The Taiwan government saw it as a parody of Chiang Kai-shek's decision to succeed his son Chiang Ching-kuo (KMT) to determine. While in detention, Bo Yang wrote a series of papers on Chinese history .

Bo Yang lived in Taipei and held the honorary title of National Political Advisor to President Chen Shui-bian ( DPP ) until his death . On April 20, 2008, the Taiwanese television MAC-TV ( 宏觀 宏觀 ) showed how the elected President Ma Yingjiu of the KMT visited Bo Yang at the bedside and assured him that the path of democracy would continue after he took office on May 20, 2008. Nine days later, on April 29, 2008, Bo Yang died of lung failure . Bo Yang had been married to the poet Zhang Xiang-Hua ( 張香華 ) since 1978 and had three daughters and two sons from four previous marriages.

Works (selection)

• Chinese  醜陋 的 中國 人 Chǒulòu de Zhōngguórén (The Ugly Chinese)
• Chinese  中國 人 史綱 Zhōngguórén Shǐgāng (Principles of the History of the Chinese)
• Chinese  大 男人 沙文主義 Dà Nánrén Shāwénzhǔyì (Male Chauvinism)

swell

1. ^ Jürgen Ritter, Kulturkritik in Taiwan: Bo Yang (1920–) . Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1987

literature

• Jürgen Ritter, Historiographisches aus Taiwan: Bo Yang and the translation of the general history Zizhi tongjian , in: Interdisciplinary aspects of German Taiwan research, ed. E. Sandschneider in collaboration with H. Martin, Bochum: projekt verlag 1994, pp. 132–145

Web links

• Literature by and about Bo Yang in the catalog of the German National Library
• Portrait on renditions.org
• Sojatopf's doctor and his patient (www.ludaofu.de)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Bo is the family name here, Yang is the first name.