Ba Jin, whose original name was Li Yaotang, received the 1982 Dante International Prize.

He was one of the founders of modern Chinese literature producing many outstanding novels, short stories, essays and prose.

Ba is best known for the trilogy Family, Spring and Autumn which were believed to have inspired millions of Chinese youths in the 1930s and 40s.

In 1975 Ba was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. For his many contributions to Chinese literature, he was awarded a Special Fukuoka Asian Commemorative Prize in 1990.

Writers and their old homes  

Famous figures who took their own lives