Mei Zhi was born in
Nanchang,
Jiangxi, the eldest daughter of three children. Mei joined the
League of Left-Wing Writers in
Shanghai in 1932. She met another member of this group,
Hu Feng, in 1933 when he returned after being deported from
Japan and the two married at the end of the year. The two lived in
Shanghai, where their home became a meeting place for other members of the League of Left-Wing Writers. Mei published her first volume in 1934 titled
Shoushang zhi ye(). During the
Second Sino-Japanese War, Mei moved with her family first to
Wuhan, then to
Chongqing. Whilst they moved, Hu increased the number of publications of his literary magazine
Qi Yue (), which Mei
copy-edited. Mei also edited the magazine
Xiwang (). In 1941, Mei fled with her family to
Hong Kong, which soon fell to the Japanese, after which they went to
Guilin. By 1946, the family reached
Shanghai, where Mei stayed with their three children until 1949.
Arrest In May 1955, both Mei and Hu were arrested for
counter-revolutionary activities. Mei's alleged crime was that she had transcribed Hu's book
Sanshi fangyan (). She was released in 1961 after the death of her mother, but was only permitted to visit Hu in prison in 1965. Hu was released in late 1965 and was sent to live in
Chengdu in early 1966, accompanied by Mei, under surveillance by the Sichuan Municipal Public Security Department. In August, with the onset of the
Cultural Revolution, the two were taken to a prison camp that produced tea in
Lushan County, Sichuan. Later, Hu was imprisoned, and frequently fell ill, thus Mei was taken to the prison at
Dazhou and made to nurse him.
Rehabilitation In 1979, Mei was rehabilitated and allowed to return to
Chengdu. In 1980, Mei was given official permission to take Hu to
Beijing, in order to help his increasingly serious
mental illness. Hu died in 1985, after which Mei wrote several
memoirs detailing his experiences in prison. Mei joined the
China Writers Association in 1982. ==Written works==