Ba Jin was born in 1904 in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan, China. His real name is Li Yaotang. In 1927 he moved to France and wrote his first novel, Destruction (1929). He has lived in Shanghai, Japan, and Korea. In 1978 he was elected a deputy to the National People's Congress and in 1981 chairman of the Chinese Writer's Association. In 1986 he was the honorary President of the China Literature Foundation. His novels include The Dead Sun, New Life, Love Trilogy: Fog, Rain, Lightning, Family, Spring and Autumn, the famous Rip Trilogy, and Cold Nights. In 1962 his collected works were published in fourteen volumes.