Novelist, Dramatist. He was best known for his novel "Rickshaw Boy" and the play "Teahouse." His works are known for their vivid use of the Beijing dialect. Born Shu Qingchun to a poor family, his father, a guard soldier, died in a street battle with the Eight-Nation Alliance Forces during the course of the Boxer Rebellion in 1901. In 1913, he was admitted to the Beijing Normal Third High School, but had to leave after several months due to financial difficulties. In the same year, he was accepted to Beijing Normal University, where he graduated in 1918. He was an administrator and faculty member at a number of primary and secondary schools in Beijing and Tianjin, and was highly influenced by the May Fourth Movement. He went on to serve as a lecturer at the University of London from 1924 to 1929. During his time in London, he had an interest in English literature and began his own writing. In 1926, his first novel "Lao Zhang's Philosophy" was released. He left Britain in 1929 for Singapore, and taught at the Chinese High School. He returned to China in 1930, and until 1937, he taught at several more universities. In 1938, The All-China Resistance Association of Writers and Artists was established, with Lao She as its leader. The organization was to unite cultural workers in China against the Japanese invaders during the Second Sino-Japanese War. From 1946 to 1949, he lived in the United States on a cultural grant sponsored by the State Department. After the People's Republic of China was established, he returned to China. Novelist Pearl S. Buck, who served as his sponsor, translated his novel "Rickshaw Boy", which then became a best seller in America. He was a member of the Cultural and Educational Committee in the Government Administration Council, a deputy to the National People's Congress, vice-chairman of the All-Cina Federation of Literature and Art, vice-chairman of the Union of Chinese Writers as well as chairman of the Beijing Federation of Literature and Art. During the Cultural Revolution, he experienced mistreatment by the Red Guards. Condemned as a counterrevolutionary, they paraded him through the streets and beat him in public. Greatly humiliated both mentally and physically, he committed suicide by drowning himself in a lake. After the Cultural Revolution, many of his works were republished, and he was posthumously "rehabilitated" by the Chinese Communist Party. Several of his stories have been made into films, including "Dragon Beard Ditch," "Rickshaw Boy," "The Teahouse," and "The Drum Singers."