Bo Qu(1923-2002)
- Writer
Qu Bo was a Chinese novelist. His name was also translated as Chu Po. Qu, the family name, has meanings of curve, melody and tune. Bo stands for ripples and waves. His first book Tracks in the Snowy Forest (Lin Hai Xue Yuan) made him one of the most popular authors at the time. Originally from Zaolinzhuang Village, Huang County (now Longkou), at the north-east coast of Shandong province, Qu Bo's early education was through a private school where he started to gain his sound knowledge of Chinese classical literature and succinct language skills.[citation needed] His father, Qu Chunyang and mother, Qu Liushi owned a small business of cotton dyeing, which failed when western textiles poured into China.
In 1938, at the age of 15, he left home and fought in the war against the Japanese invasion (Second Sino-Japanese War). His name was changed from his childhood name Qu Qingtao into Qu Bo by the officials of the Eighth Route Army. Qu Bo had further education at the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University in Shandong and became a journalist of an army newspaper, The Progress. The army turned into the People's Liberation Army after the Japanese surrendered, and Qu Bo continued to battle in the Chinese civil war in the northeast of China, protecting the regional civilians from robbery and killings by the regional bandits and brigands. In the army, he served as a young literacy teacher, a political commissar and finally a colonel. In 1946 he married Liu Bo who was a head nurse of a hospital at the same army regional headquarters.
During the communist regime after 1949, Qu Bo worked in the railway industry and the Ministry of Machinery until his retirement, and lived in Beijing for the rest of his life.
Qu Bo was an active member of the China Writers'Association, and was recognized as a Chinese contemporary writer in the history of Chinese Literature. He had, however, never stopped his full-time industrial management jobs and only wrote books and articles during his spare time. He visited Russia, Pakistan and England as an author as well as industrial director. His novels were made into films, Beijing Opera musicals and TV shows.
