One night in December 1978, Ba Jin (1904-2005), the Chinese literary giant, sat down at the desk in his apartment at 113 Wukang Road and began to write. "I am now in my 70s and probably don't have much working time left," he wrote. "Ten years of my life were wasted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). I don't want to boast about this, but rather do something useful. I want to write a book called Sui Xiang Lu …"

From that night, and over the next eight years, Ba worked on this collection which eventually consisted of 150 essays. Sui Xiang Lu (or Random Thoughts in English) is generally regarded as the first example of a rethinking, and an honest self-examination, of those 10 tumultuous years.

Commemorative events

November 25 is the 108th anniversary of Ba Jin's birth. And to mark this, a series of commemorative events organized by the government of Changning district will take place in the city as part of the 2012 Changning Book Festival.

The events include an on-going exhibition about the writer called Life Blossom, as well as two academic lectures about him and his works. The lectures will be held in Shanghai Changning Library.

"Ba was one of many Chinese literary celebrities who suffered terribly during the Cultural Revolution," Li Hui, one of Ba Jin's friends who has researched the writer, told the Global Times at a lecture about Ba last weekend. "However, Ba is the only person who ever proposed building a Cultural Revolution museum in China."

Both Ba and his wife, Xiao Shan, were severely persecuted during these years and were forced to live apart. Xiao eventually died in 1972 after being deprived of medical care.

Li added: "Although the proposal for the museum hasn't been put into practice, the very idea inspired later generations to reconsider the Cultural Revolution and to never forget its historical lessons."

Li told the Global Times that, as the Cultural Revolution broke out, Ba became the first victim whose persecution and denunciation was actually filmed by Red Guards and then broadcast on television. 

However, when reading Sui Xiang Lu, people may be surprised to discover that the book has little to do with Ba's personal experiences and suffering, but rather provides a deeper and more objective account of the entire period.

"Ba believed that the Cultural Revolution was not any individual's fault, but that every Chinese person needs to take some responsibility for what happened," said Li.

Zhou Liming, another senior researcher on Ba Jin, also told the Global Times that Sui Xiang Lu had heavily influenced him since first reading it as a high-school student.

"It made me decide to become a professional researcher of Ba Jin," Zhou wrote in one of his books called The Study of Sui Xiang Lu.

Zhou added that, "Ba emphasized repeatedly in Sui Xiang Lu that people should dare to tell the truth and to be independent-minded. I believe that his point of view is not only targeting the Cultural Revolution, but is also an universal principle that everyone of us should adhere to in our daily lives."

The on-going exhibition in Shanghai Changning Library features original manuscripts of Ba's works (including Sui Xiang Lu) and also photos of Ba Jin with his family and friends while living on Wukang Road. 

Although Ba was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, he spent most of his life in Shanghai after studying abroad in France from 1927 to 1928.

As a literature lover, Ba contributed much to the literary development of the country after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Literary magazine

He established a literary publishing house in Shanghai in 1935, Cultural Publishing House, which is now part of the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House. In 1957 he also started a bi-monthly Chinese literary magazine, Shouhuo (Harvest), which is still going today.

For the last 50 years of his life, Ba lived on Wukang Road and his home has become a much-visited attraction since it was opened to the public in 2011. Zhou is the current director of this museum space.

While Ba was living there, friends say the apartment was always crowded with visitors, both from China and abroad. These guests included French literary giants, Jean-Paul Sartre and his wife Simone de Beauvoir, the Nobel Prize-winning Chinese-French writer Gao Xingjian, and other literary names such as Shen Congwen, Cao Yu and Xia Yan.

"Ba was called a sage by his friends, which means he influenced and helped many other people and made a great contribution to the idea of conserving knowledge," Li said.

Life Blossom

Date: Until November 28 (except Monday), 9 am to 4 pm

Venue: Shanghai Changning Library

上海市长宁区图书馆

Address: 356 Tianshan Road

天山路356号

Admission: Free

Call 3353-8801 for details

Lecture on Ba Jin

Lecturer: Zhao Lihong, the deputy director of Shanghai Writers Association

Date: November 25, 1:30 pm to 3 pm

Venue: Shanghai Changning Library

上海市长宁区图书馆

Address: 356 Tianshan Road

天山路356号

Admission: Free

Call 3353-8801 for details