Wang Shiwei

However, he was once again forced to quit in 1927, but was again able to start studying during the late 1920s and early 1930s, this time at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow.

By 1942, Wang was working for the Liberation Daily (解放日報) where he wrote the essay "Wild Lilies" (野百合花), criticizing Mao Zedong's taste for beautiful women, as well as what he called the unjustified privileges enjoyed by members of the CCP.

It discussed the "ugliness and indifference" of Yan'an; also criticizing some "big men" in the CCP whom Wang thought were responsible for the "growth of darkness" in China.

Mao's Talks at the Yan'an Forum in May laid down the official line demanding that art serve politics.

Wang's defense was that he was not involved in any Trotskyist activities, except for helping his friends Wang Wenyuan (王文元) and Chen Qichang (who at the time was known as "Chen Qingchen" 陳清晨) to translate two prose pieces in "Autobiography of Leon Trotsky" (《托洛茨基自傳》), activities which he had already informed the CCP of.

He took the pen name of "Shiwei" (實味), and his talent was greatly appreciated by Xu Zhimo, a contemporary Chinese poet.

His novella Xiuxi (休息, meaning "rest"), talked about how young people should fight against the darkness of a country and was published in Xu Zhimo's "New Literary Collection" in 1930.

An example used to illustrate this is how one day Wang overheard two girls criticizing the apparently inconsiderate behavior of senior leaders towards the public.

He later wrote that he was shocked after overhearing the dialogue, and took note of it, later referring to it to make known his concern about the state of the country.

"Arrow and Target" (矢与的) was a wall poster newspaper series posted outside the southern gate of Yan'an City.

Wang uses the spaces provided in the newspaper series to attack Li Weihan (also known as Luo Mai), the director of the Central research Institute.

Wang's works allowed readers, particularly those of Yan'an, to gain a better understanding of issues like the relationship between politics and literature.

"While it is tempting to characterize the trial of Wang Shiwei as an illustration of the fate awaiting free-thinking intellectuals in a repressive state, it is clear from the questions raised in the first session that the Wang Shiwei trial epitomizes the difficulty of voicing a minority opinion, especially when that opinion is pitted against a more powerful entity such as the state.

However, because of the successful and interesting reflection of reality in Wang's works, people started to appreciate Chinese literature.

Many Chinese writers also began to write more about the reality, examining on the local arts and the Marxist ideas.

Wang's eagerness to voice out the inequalities and his critical mind contributed to his success as one of the most representative writers in the period.