Writer Zhou Erfu, best known for his pro-revolutionary novel Morning of Shanghai, has died aged 90 in Beijing.
A graduate of Guanghua University in Shanghai, Zhou reached the height of his political career in 1978 as vice-minister of culture.
In 1986, he was dismissed as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and stripped of his party membership for having a 'corrupt lifestyle violating communist moral standards', Xinhua reported at that time.
Zhou, born in 1914 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, was interested in literature from his early years.
He joined the pro-communist literature and art movement in the 1930s. His first publication, a collection of poems, appeared in 1936.
In 1938, Zhou arrived in Yanan, Shaanxi, the so-called 'cradle of the Chinese revolution' which was then the headquarters of the Communist Party.
He became a member of the party in 1939.