Renowned Chinese-born writer Han Suyin, whose autobiographical novel was turned into the popular American film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, has died in Lausanne, Switzerland, Chinese and Swiss media said on Sunday. She was 95.
Han, the author of about 40 books on modern China, died on Friday, Xinhua reported, citing her family.
The frail-looking and charismatic Han was branded both as a “Chinese revolutionary” in the West and “bourgeois” in communist China, with her work, often based on her own life straddling the two worlds.
Novels and essays by the thrice-married Han, as well as her meetings with Indira Gandhi, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, earned her a worldwide reputation.
The writer’s biggest work was a five-volume autobiography, while other writings included biographies of Mao and Zhou, and a study on Tibet.
She had been one of the few foreigners to be able to visit communist China in the early years of the regime. In a 1968 interview with France’s Le Figaro newspaper, she said Mao was “the greatest man China has known”.