Wei Wei

Wèi Wéi (魏巍) (born on January 16, 1920), originally known as Hong Jie (鴻傑), has been a poet, a prose writer, a literary report writer, a journalist, a vice-editor-in-chief and the editor in various newspapers in China and a propagandist. His works are highly noticed for patriotism, communism and nationalism. Apart from using the name Wei Wei, he once used the pen name Hong Yangshu (紅陽樹) in some of his publications. He changed his name from Hong Jie to Wei Wei in 1937 since he had started a new page of his life --- a political one.

Background

Life in his early days

Before going to school

The Common People Elementary School

The Simple Village Normal School

Persisting Learning

Life during War Times

Being a writer of the military journey of Communist China, Wei Wei joined the army to fight against Japan when he was as young as seventeen. He experienced the war in first hand. He also participated in the war against America on the side of Korea and Vietnam. From the 80s until now, he has been working hard to promote the tradition of revolution against Capitalism.

Today's Wei Wei

At the age of 84, Wei Wei still involves in the field of literature. Recently, he has attended a seminar on the collection of Cui Xuan (《崔璇文集》座談會) to promote a book related to the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) (中日戰爭) on September 20, 2004 as a guest of honour.

Wei Wei now leads a routine life. He wakes up at around six every morning, takes a nap in the afternoon and sleeps after midnight. He usually meets reporters or his guests from three to six in the afternoon. In his leisure time, he likes reading newspapers and writing short essays.

Family

Involvement in Journalism

Being An Editor

He was also once appointed as the vice-editor-in-chief of People's Liberation Army Literary Arts. The People's Liberation Army general political department creates room assistant director, general political department literary arts place assistant deputy office chief and vice-minister of Beijing military region propaganda department. Furthermore, he was the editor of journals Jung Liu <<中流>> and times report <<時代的報告>>.

Remarkable experiences as a journalist

In 1965, Wei Wei went to Vietnam for an interview during the Vietnam War. At that time, the US military vigorously attacked Glory City (榮市), which was a very important city in the south. The city has been nearly a ruin. To make things worse, one anonymous reporter wrote an article called the Dead City (死城) that utterly destroyed the hope of the Vietnamese to fight against the US. When Wei Wei arrived at Vietnam, he saw all the efforts paid by the soldiers and civilians. That inspired him to give them hope and it was the motivation for him to influence them through his writings. Opposing this anonymous reporter, he wrote an article called the Fight City (戰鬥的城) which is full of spirit and confidence.

In 2001, Wei Wei was isolated in Beijing Military Hospital (北京軍區醫院) and was not allowed to see his family as he opposed Jiang Zimin (江澤民) “7。1” sayings.

Journalistic principles applied in works

Telling truth

In order to get a thorough understanding about what the American prisoners of war thought politically at that time, Wei Wei went to Korea in December 1952 with a consultant from Sinhua She (新華社) and a secretary of Communism in London, England. After they arrived, they first met the voluntary soldiers and then went to BiTong War Prisoners’ Camp (碧潼俘虜營) to interview the American militants. They had met lots of American soldiers and military officers, and talked to them individually. This was an objective method to judge whether the truth had been dug out. After the investigation in the BiTong War Prisoners’ Camp, Wei Wei wrote a report and sent it back to China. He got first hand information by going to Korea himself instead of knowing these from hearsay.

Verifying information

As Wei Wei had heard some striking stories from the voluntary soldiers in Korea, he decided to stay there and investigate news in Korea until February 1952. He gained his first hand information. Being an investigative reporter, he went to different places in Korea to investigate the conditions of war. He interviewed different people and even including those who were in hospital. He heard stories from others and in order to verify them, he chose to stay in Korea. He acted as a postman to deliver messages between the soldiers and the public. He gave the citizens of China his loyalty and he had verified the source of information before reporting them to the public.

Serving as independent monitor of power

Before 1937, Wei Wei had maintained a higher degree of independence as he did not get very close to the centre of the Communist Party in China. What he wrote was basically based on his observations and opinions only. However, after he got closer to the Communist Party, he was under the supervision of the party. He went to Korea for investigation because he was ordered to go there. Some people keep on thinking that it involved a political motivation.

Maintaining independence

However, Wei Wei failed to fulfil the fourth element of journalism which is “Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover”. He was moved by the scene the Chinese soldiers that he witnessed in Korea. He later wrote an article "Who is the most Lovable" (誰是最可愛的人) published in the Peopledaily and made the headline on April 11, 1951 to praise the Chinese soldiers. This was very clear that he inclined to one particular side. He once said "the Chinese soldiers are the most lovable”. The main idea was about patriotism and this article was sent to the frontier to encourage the soldiers there. It was used as a political propaganda. Therefore, we cannot say that it shows a neutral point of view.

Contributions to literature

Writing Style

Major themes of writing