User:Littlemissgemini/Nie Gannu

Nie Gannu (1903–1986) was a Chinese essayist, and a political figure. He was born in in Jingshan County, Hubei province in 1903. He studied at Huangpu Military School. After he had graduated from Huangpu military School, he then went to Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. Which is a school other famous political figures like Deng Xiaoping, JiangJingguo also attended. In 1958, Nie Gannu as well as other famous poets, and senior revolutionist were expelled to "farms". Nie Gannu was expelled to a 'farm' in Heilongjiang. The "Farm" is a labour camp in the wilderness where the Chinese government sent the revolutionist or poets who 'went against the will of the government', where they were monitored, and forced to work at. In EPILOGUE: The Regime of “We”, it says "during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, Nie was indicated as an 'acting counterrevolutionary' and sentenced to life in prison" (188 Xiao). He was sentenced prison in 1967, and released in 1976. Redressed in 1979

Early Life
Nie Gannu was born into "a declining landowner family". Then joined Nationalist part in 1922. In 1924, he began studying at Huangpu Military School. After he graduated, he then studied at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. He had met a lot of classmates and friends who were also very politically involved, and had made a huge impact on history. He met Zhou Enlai(1891-1976) at Huangpu Military School. Dang Xiaoping, who later became the leader for China, and Jiang Jingguo at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. As well as other "Chinese communists and Nationalists"(20 Tian). In 1940s, he started working as a journal editor. In the early People's Republic China days, "We-as-one" was the main idea of the government. In the 1950s to 1960s, In 1955, Nie Gannu, Hu Feng, who shares a similar belief he does, as well as other writers who were 'associated' with Hu Feng were involved in a campaign launched by Chinese Communist party(20 Tian). It was called the "Hu Feng event". The campaign was about "[those who mobiliize the public and assert] government control"(188 Xiao). And they were considered as the "impurities" of the community. The government believed "the impurities" were harmful to maintain the main idea of "we-as-one", and they wanted to "get rid of them". In the Anti-rightist campaign in 1957, Nie Gannu was "labelled as a rightist". Then he was excluded from the party, as well as sent to the HeiLongJiang farm.

HeiLongJiang Farm/ concentration camp/ The great northern wilderness
Nie Gannu was banished to the Great Northern Wilderness for reeducation through labour as he was labelled as a rightist, alongside thousands of other "rightists". The Great Norther Wilderness is a concentration camp that is located in now Heilongjiang. Nie was on the "fifth team of the 850 farm" They were forced to work "from sunrise until dark, not allowing breaks even in severe weather conditions"(192 Yang). And they slept in a room with two long beds at night, where dozens of people fit in one bed.

One night in 1959, a political instructor ordered everyone to write poetries. And that was Nie Gannu's first time of officially writing old-style poetries.

Poetry style
Nie Gannu has written both new-style, and old-style poems. But he is more well-known for his old-style poems.

Nie Gannu wrote a lot of poems during his years in the the Great Northern Wilderness concentration camp. During the cultural revolution, he spent a lot of time writing poems on "critiquing the Anti-Rightist and the Socialist reality"(Wang 2017)