THE GHOST OF author Lao She continues to haunt Beijing more than 30 years after his body was found floating in a lake just beyond the old city walls. Who killed Lao She? And why? The mystery, stranger than any whodunnit, continues to inspire new books and conferences, a sign that the literary world is still deeply divided by the past.
Last month, yet another seminar was held on Lao She at the newly opened National Museum for Modern Literature where scholar Fu Guangming released his latest findings, Notes From Taiping Lake. After more than 100 interviews, Fu and his wife Zheng Shi are still uncertain what exactly happened during the 'bloody August' of 1966 when Lao She and other prominent intellectuals were targeted in an orchestrated wave of violence across the capital.
'I have been digging since 1993 but I still can't say why he died,' says Fu, the former secretary of writer Xiao Qian, who is an authority on the group of writers that flourished in 1930s Beijing. His new book is part two of a trilogy on Lao She, whose death has inspired many articles, accusations and counter-accusations since 1978 when the novelist's reputation was restored.
Even basic facts are in doubt, including the date of his death. Some witnesses claim Lao She left his home early on the morning of August 24, walked to the lake and drowned himself. Yet his son, Shu Yi, says another witness, a worker who lived near Taiping Lake (which no longer exists) discovered the body early on the 25th.
'He may have sat by the lake hesitating for 24 hours before finally loading his pockets with stones and wading in,' Fu says.
On August 24, he was under orders to report to the Beijing Writers' Association and to wear a placard identifying him as a 'counter-revolutionary in motion'. It is therefore not clear, says Fu, where he went after leaving his home. There is no forensic evidence to confirm the cause of death. His corpse was taken straight to Babaoshan, the cemetery in western Beijing where the communist leaders are buried, and cremated. His widow was not even allowed to collect his ashes because he was regarded as a counter-revolutionary who had killed himself.
