Zhang Yihe

Zhang Yihe (Chinese: 章诒和; pinyin: Zhāng Yíhé, born 1942) is a Chinese writer, memoirist, and scholar of Peking opera and traditional Chinese theatre. She is best known for her vivid, memoir-style accounts of Chinese intellectuals and artists who suffered during the Anti-Rightist Campaign in the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution. As the daughter of prominent democratic politician and "Number One Rightist" Zhang Bojun, she herself was imprisoned for ten years during the Cultural Revolution. She is a graduate of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts. She is the author of a memoir of mid-twentieth century intellectuals, politicians and literati, titled The Past is Not Like Smoke, and of Lingren Wangshi, a history of Peking opera stars. Her nonfiction works have been repeatedly banned in mainland China, and she has become a prominent critic of literary censorship.