Lin Wenzheng | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1902 |
| Died | 1989 (aged 87) Hangzhou, China |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Spouse | Cai Weilian |
| Children | 6 |
Lin Wenzheng (Chinese:林文錚; c. 1902 – 1989) was a Chinese painter.
Lin spent some seven years studying Western painting inParis,France; in 1924, he founded the Society of Overseas Artists in Paris together with fellow artistsLin Fengmian,Liu Jipiao, and others.[1] Returning to China, Lin taught art at various schools and was for some time provost at the Hangzhou-basedChina Academy of Art, where his wifeCai Weilian (1904–1939) also taught. InWorld War II, Lin and his family moved toKunming,Yunnan, where he worked with the Southwest United Universities.[1] Lin and his wife had six children; Cai Weilian died two days after giving birth to their sixth child in 1939. Having to juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet, Lin found life as a widower almost unbearable but found solace in poetry andBuddhism.[citation needed]
Following theChinese Civil War, Lin relocated toNanjing and lectured on foreign literature at theNanjing University. In 1954, he married Lian Dizhen (连棣贞), a proofreader at the Nanjing University Press who was about twenty years his junior. Lin Wenzheng was sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment in November 1957 for allegedly propagating right-wing sentiments, leaving his second wife Lian in charge of the household. During theCultural Revolution, Lian was identified by the government as a potentialcounter-revolutionary, tortured, and ultimately coerced into divorcing Lin; she died two years later. In 1975, while still in prison, Lin was commissioned to translateA Brief History of Chinese Fiction byLu Xun from Chinese to French. Lin was released a year later; he spent his final years in Hangzhou, under his youngest daughter Zhengming's care, and died in 1989 aged 87.[1]
