Early years Xiao was born on 27 January 1910 in
Beijing. His name at birth was Xiao Bingqian (). He was born into a sinicized
Mongol family. His father died before his birth, leaving only his mother to raise him. His mother died when he was seven, and he was sent to live with his cousins.
School days In 1917, at the age of 7, Xiao entered the Chongshi School (). It was a church school run by European missionaries. He took up part-time jobs to pay the tuition fees (e.g. weaving Turkish rugs, delivering milk and
mimeographing lecture notes in the school administration office). He worked in the morning and studied in the afternoon. In summer 1924, about half a year before completing junior middle school, he worked as a trainee in Beixin Press bookstore. This sparked his interest in literature. In the same year he joined the
Communist Youth League. In 1931 Xiao enrolled at
Fu Jen Catholic University. Together with an American youth William Allen he published a magazine in English
China in Brief (中國簡報,
Zhōngguó Jiǎnbào). It presented works of famous authors such as
Lu Xun,
Mao Dun,
Guo Moruo,
Wen Yiduo and
Yu Dafu. Due to insufficient funding the magazine ended after eight issues, but it influenced the foreign readers in Beijing. In this period he became a student of
Shen Congwen, who greatly influenced Xiao's early writings. In 1933 Xiao entered the Faculty of English in
Yenching University and in autumn of the same year he switched to the Faculty of
Journalism. His teacher was an American journalist
Edgar Snow. Snow encouraged him to use various literary techniques in journalistic reporting, which became characteristic to Xiao's writing. He graduated in June 1936 and continued the studies as a postgraduate student at
Cambridge University. Soon after he became a lecturer at
University College London.
Life in England In 1939, at the age of 28, Xiao Qian returned to England to work as an instructor in modern Chinese language for the
School of Oriential and African Studies (SOAS) in London. SOAS was moved to Cambridge when Germany began the devastating bombing campaign
Blitz. Xiao Qian was politically active and made regular speeches for the
China Campaign Committee, a
left-wing group which campaigned against the Japanese occupation in China.
Marriage and family He married four times. In 1936 he met his first wife Wang Shucang () while working on the Shanghai edition of the
Ta Kung Pao. The couple only stayed together for two years before he fell in love with another woman during his stay in
Hong Kong. They had an extramarital son born in 1948. Xiao tried to get a divorce, but Wang opposed it and as a result Xiao Qian left China for England. In 1954, Xiao married his fourth wife, Wen Jieruo (). They had two sons and a daughter. On 30 January 1955 the daughter Xiao Lizi () was born.
Later years During the
Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) Xiao Qian was regarded by the
Chinese Communist Party as right wing and was banished to the countryside. In 1968 he tried to commit suicide. In 1978 he received a redress as one of the mishandled cases. In 1979 he was a resident in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In 1999 Xiao Qian died at the age of 89 of
myocardial infarction and
renal failure in Beijing. ==Personal life==