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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Yang Hongying

Chinese writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ4373483
Source-derived summary

Yang Hongying (born 12 May 1962) is a Chinese writer of children's fiction, who has been called "China's J. K. Rowling." As of 2013, her novels had sold more than 50 million copies, and she has been listed as one of the richest Chinese writers since 2006. Her best-selling works are the Mo's Mischief (or Ma Xiaotiao) and the Diary of a Smiling Cat series.

Early life and education

Yang Hongying was born in 1962 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. She was the youngest daughter of Yang Tianxiao, an office clerk. She credits her parents for giving her space and letting her develop freely. By her own account, she did not read much in early childhood, but as a teen she became fascinated with Chinese classical novels such as Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber. She read some sections repeatedly and studied how each character was introduced, which she said was helpful to her later writing.

Career

After completing teacher training, she became a primary school Chinese teacher in 1980. The Cultural Revolution had just ended a few years before, and there was a dearth of children's reading material outside the textbooks. After teaching for a year, she began to write her own stories for the children.

Editorial summary

“Yang Hongying” enters the record as chinese writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Yang, Hongying and Chinese can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1962, 2013, 2006, 1980—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1962-05-12, 1962—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Yang, Hongying and Chinese.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Yang Hongying” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Yang, Hongying and Chinese provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4373483. VIAF identifies the subject as 309853173. The Library of Congress control number is no2014097765. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 2013, 2006 and 1980.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Yang Hongying”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Yang Hongying primary sources, Yang Hongying archive and Yang research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yang Hongying”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Yang Hongying” 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.