Ai Qing
Chinese poet (1910-1996)
Ai Qing (Chinese: 艾青; pinyin: Ài Qīng; Wade–Giles: Ai Ch'ing, March 27, 1910 – May 5, 1996), born Jiang Zhenghan (Chinese: 蒋正涵; pinyin: Jiǎng Zhènghán) and styled Jiang Haicheng (Chinese: 蒋海澄; pinyin: Jiǎng Hǎichéng), was a 20th-century Chinese poet. He was known under his pen names Linbi (Chinese: 林壁; pinyin: Línbì), Ke'a (Chinese: 克阿; pinyin: Kè'ā) and Ejia (Chinese: 莪伽; pinyin: Éjiā).
Life
Ai Qing was born in Fantianjiang village (贩田蒋), Jinhua county, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. After entering Hangzhou Xihu Art School in 1928, on the advice of principal Lin Fengmian, he went abroad and studied in Paris the following spring. From 1929 to 1932 while studying in France, besides learning art of Renoir and Van Gogh, the philosophy of Kant and Hegel, he also studied modern poets such as Mayakovsky and was especially influenced by Belgian poet Verhaeren.
After returning to Shanghai, China in May 1932, he joined China Left Wing Artist Association, and was arrested in July for opposing the Kuomintang. During his imprisonment, Ai Qing translated Verhaeren's poems and wrote his first book Dayanhe—My Nanny (大堰河—我的保姆), "Reed Flute" (芦笛), and "Paris" (巴黎). He was imprisoned for three years.
After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Ai Qing wrote "Snow falls on China's Land" (雪落在中国的土地上) after arriving at Wuhan to support the war effort. In 1938, he moved to Guilin to become the editor of Guixi Daily newspaper.
The public source identifies “Ai Qing” as chinese poet (1910-1996). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Qing, Chinese and poet.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q381194. VIAF identifies the subject as 100268751. The Library of Congress control number is n81020333. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1996, 1928 and 1929.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ai Qing” 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.