[R-G] Yao Wenyuan, 74, member of Gang of Four, is dead

[shniad at sfu.ca]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/obituaries/07yao.html

New York Times	   January 7, 2006

Yao Wenyuan, 74, member of Gang of Four, is dead 

By David Bartboza 

Shanghai, Saturday, Jan. 7 - Yao Wenyuan, the last surviving member of
China's notorious Gang of Four, the powerful group that was blamed for many
of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, died Dec. 23, according to the
official New China News Agency. He was 74. 

The government did not immediately issue a statement. But the state-run
media said Mr. Yao died of diabetes. It did not specify where he died. 

Mr. Yao was a former Shanghai journalist and propaganda official whose
writings and association with Jiang Qing, the wife of Mao Zedong, and two
other colleagues - who together formed the Gang of Four - was blamed for
helping touch off one of the darkest periods in China's modern history, the
Cultural Revolution, a period from 1966 to 1976 when China devolved into
social and political chaos.

At the height of his power, Mr. Yao was a member of the country's ruling
Politburo and was feared for his lethal essays. He was even dubbed the
killer by pen.

He wrote an essay in 1965 that was later considered one of the opening
salvos in the Cultural Revolution.

Later, according to the government, he admitted to falsifying evidence that
led to the purge of Deng Xiaoping, who was rehabilitated in 1976 and went on
to become China's top leader.

After the death of Mao in 1976, however, the Cultural Revolution came to a
close. Mr. Yao, along with Madame Jiang and their two Shanghai colleagues,
Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen, were arrested, subjected to public show
trials and sentenced to long prison terms for their role in framing and
persecuting hundreds of thousands of people and throwing the country into
violence.

Madame Jiang, the leader of the Gang of Four, is believed to have committed
suicide in prison in 1991. Mr. Wang died in 1992, and Mr. Zhang died last
April in Shanghai at the age of 88. 

Mr. Yao, who was released from prison in 1996 after serving a 20-year prison
term near Beijing, was reported to have been living in Shanghai at the time
of his death, writing a book.

Mr. Yao, born in 1931, was a Shanghai writer and literary critic. He became
a favorite of Madame Jiang, a former Shanghai actress who in the 1960's
gained enormous power in the Communist Party, particularly over cultural
affairs, as Mao grew increasingly frail.

Madame Jiang sought to radicalize the arts with revolutionary plays and
dramas, and unleashed lethal attacks on the Old Guard and those who
published what she deemed antirevolutionary or ideologically incorrect
works.

At the time, Mr. Yao was living in Shanghai as a member of a group that
called itself the Proletarian Writers for Purity. In November 1965, he wrote
a blistering attack on a play by Wu Han, "The Dismissal of Hai Rui From
Office," calling it antirevolutionary and contrary to Mao's thinking and
principles.

The essay, later published in Beijing, is considered the first shot in the
Cultural Revolution, touching off debate in political and artistic circles
over who followed Mao and who opposed him. A power struggle erupted that
shook the foundations of China's leadership and created an era of paranoia
and madness in China's biggest cities.

By the late 1960's, Mr. Yao had become a member of the increasingly powerful
Gang of Four. Madame Jiang was considered the ringleader, Mr. Zhang was the
powerful Shanghai propaganda official who later became a Politburo member
and was considered a possible successor to Mao, and Mr. Wang was a labor
activist who was also elevated to the Politburo. 

During Mr. Yao's trial, the government said he once published an essay that
read: "Why can't we shoot a few counterrevolutionary elements? After all,
dictatorship is not like embroidering flowers."