Yu-chien Kuan

Yu-chien Kuan or Guan Yuqian (; 18 February 1931 – 22 November 2018) was a Chinese-born German sinologist, writer and translator. The son of a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official, he was denounced as a "rightist" and persecuted during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution. This drove him to escape from China using a Japanese passport stolen from his workplace. He landed in Egypt and spent a year and half in prison for illegal entry, before being admitted to West Germany in 1969 as a political refugee.

In Germany, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg, became a sinology professor at the university and served as an advisor to politicians including Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. He published 26 books, including ten co-authored with his wife, Petra Häring-Kuan. He also collaborated with Wolfgang Kubin to translate the works of Lu Xun into German.

Early life Kuan was born on 18 February 1931, in Guangzhou (Canton), Guangdong, Republic of China. His father, Guan Xibin , who later changed his name to Guan Yiwen , studied in France and graduated from Yale University in the United States. His mother, Yan Zhongyun , was a devout Christian. He was the youngest of three children, with a sister and a brother.

Soon after Kuan's birth, his mother brought the children to live in Beiping (now Beijing). When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the family fled Beiping and became refugees, eventually settling in the Shanghai French Concession. Kuan grew up in Shanghai with his mother, while his father joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War. with whom he had a son, publicly denounced him. However, Kuan refused to go to the US because it had been at war with China in Korea and Vietnam, and he did not want to defect to an enemy country. He trained several generations of German sinologists, and served as an advisor to German politicians, including Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, on Chinese affairs. He also worked with Wolfgang Kubin to translate the works of Lu Xun into German.

Cancer and death Kuan was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. He decided to spend the remainder of his life seeing the world with his wife. The couple travelled around Europe, Asia, and North and South America, for almost two years. They only stopped when he felt too weak to continue. A few weeks later, he died in Berlin on 22 November 2018, at the age of 87.