The Song of Youth

Yang Mo was born in Peking. Her father ran a private university but it was closed down when she was 12 and her family had to face financial troubles. Her father arranged her marriage to a wealthy man but Yang Mo left her home and began working as a teacher in a village near Peking. She started writing stories while studying in the Peking University in 1934. She joined the Communist Party in 1936 and a year later was sent to work among women in the Communist base areas in the North-West. When the War of Resistance against Japan began in 1937 she went to the Shanxi- Chahar-Hebei Border Region where she became director of the Women’s Association for National Salvation in Anguo County as well as director of the Information Bureau of the Women’s Association for National Salvation in central Hebei areas. In 1942 she became an editor with Dawn Light Daily and later worked for Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Daily and People’s Daily sometimes taking charge of these papers’ supplements. Her novel Life on the Reed Lake (1949) is a realistic account of the Resistance War. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 Yang worked with the information department of the Women’s Federation of Beijing. She was transferred in 1952 to the scenario board of the Central Film Administrative Bureau once more taking up editing as her major pursuit. Her novel The Song of Youth published in 1958 created a furor among readers throughout China and eventually became a best seller. Written in a free and lucid style this work vividly depicts the strenuous life and unremitting struggle of the patriotic students led by the Communist Party of China during the momentous period from the September 18th incident in 1931 to the December 9th Movement in 1935.