This renovated courtyard was the home of Lao She (1899–1966), one of Beijing’s best-loved 20th-century writers. Author of Rickshaw Boy and Tea House, and a former teacher at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Lao's life is explored via newspaper cuttings, books, photographs and personal effects. Captions are largely in Chinese.
The exhibition falls at the final hurdle, however, giving perfunctory mention to perhaps the most significant aspect of Lao She’s life: his death by drowning in Taiping Lake on 24 August 1966 after a nasty beating by Red Guards the day before.
