Mu Dan 穆旦

Mu Dan (Chinese:穆旦; pinyin:Mù Dàn; 5 April 1918 - 26 February 1977) was one of the most important poets of 20th century China. Born Zha Liangzheng (查良錚) in Tianjin, he attended Tsinghua University at the age of 17, and graduated from National Southwestern Associated University in 1940. After serving as an assistant lecturer of English at his alma mater for two years, he joined the Chinese Expedition Force for Burma in an effort to aid the British troops there to fight off the Japanese. After World War II, he went to the University of Chicago, where he eventually earned a master's degree in English literature. He is in the same family with the famous novelist Louis Cha.