Zhang Tianyi, (real name: Zhang Yuanding; 26 September 1906 – 28 April 1985) was a 20th-century Chinese left-wing writer and children's author, whose novels and short stories achieved acclaim in the 1930s for his satiric wit.
Before the Second Sino-Japanese War, he worked as a teacher, journalist and minor official.
[2] By the early 1930s Zhang had joined both the League of Left-Wing Writers and Mao's Chinese Communist Party.
[3] During the war and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he continued to write and held various official posts, including the editorship of the literary journal Renmin Wenxue (People's Literature).
The hostility of the Chinese Kuomintang regime meant that much of Zhang's writing had to be serialized in underground journals.