Chen Maiping
Chinese writer
Chen Maiping (born November 4, 1952, in Changshu, Jiangsu) is a Chinese-Swedish writer and poet, known by the pen name Wan Zhi (万之). He has written mostly short stories, and has also translated literature from English and Swedish to Chinese.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chen was an avid contributor to the non-sanctioned, underground literature magazine Jintian (Today). For this, he became watched by the Chinese authorities, and since 1986 he is living in exile. After the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, he started Jintian for Chinese in exile and dissentients within China.
Chen moved to Sweden in 1990. He has among other things taught Chinese at Stockholm University, and worked as a translator. He is also the vice president and secretary general of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. He is married to translator and librarian Anna Gustafsson Chen, who, among other things, has translated Nobel laureate Mo Yan into Swedish.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Chen Maiping” is chinese writer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chen, Maiping and Chinese, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “chinese writer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q716757. VIAF identifies the subject as 241411973. The Library of Congress control number is nr91044967. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952, 1986, 1989 and 1990.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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- Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Chen Maiping”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Chen Maiping primary sources, Chen Maiping archive and Chen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Chen Maiping” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.