Tang Na

Born in Suzhou to an eminent family of intellectuals, he attended private Suzhou Shude Junior Middle School and Jiangsu Provincial Suzhou Middle School, under the name Ma Jizong. In middle school, he was actively involved in leftist stage performances and secretly joined the Communist Youth League of China. After the Communist underground network in Suzhou was dismantled in March 1932, he moved to Shanghai and worked as a bank intern. That summer, he was admitted to St. John’s University, Shanghai, where he went by the name Ma Jiliang (or Ma Ki-Leung).

At university, he used various pen names, notably Tang Na and Luo Ping, to write film reviews for newspapers like Shen Bao and Shi Bao. Later, he worked as a screenwriter for local film companies, and participated in the Left-Wing Film Workers League. He wrote the lyrics for the film scores "Self-Defense Song" and "Saiwai Cunnu," both composed by Nie Er, for the leftist film Escape, on which Tang also worked as vice director.

In the spring of 1935, Tang wrote an enthusiastic review of the performance of Jiang Qing, then an actress known by her stage name Lan Ping, in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, calling her a “brilliant new star” and boosting her rising fame. Tang then helped Lan join the Diantong Film Company, where he worked. Their professional partnership soon turned into cohabitation.^[1] On April 26, 1936, Tang and Lan married in a group ceremony in Hangzhou alongside other celebrity couples, including Zhao Dan and Ye Luxi. The marriage generated significant public interest, with Shen Junru officiating the wedding and Zheng Junli presiding. Later in the same month, when the Shanghai edition of Tai Kung Pao was founded, Tang became an editor for its weekly supplement of film and drama.^[2]

However, Tang's marriage unraveled soon, leading him to attempt suicide twice.^[1] In late May, Lan left Shanghai for Jinan to visit her mother, promising to return by June 10. When she failed to come back, she sent a letter falsely claiming that she had died of meningitis. Suspicious, Tang took a train to Jinan, seen off by his friends Zhao Dan and Zheng Junli. However, Lan’s family refused to divulge her whereabouts, only stating that she wasn’t in Jinan. Disheartened, Tang attempted suicide in a Jinan hotel by ingesting red phosphorus match heads, but was saved by hotel staff in time. Later, when Lan’s sister visited Tang in the hospital, she revealed that Lan had gone to Tianjin to reunite with her ex-husband, Yu Qiwei. This revelation led Tang to write a long letter to Zheng Junli, allegedly exposing Lan’s deception and infidelity. This letter would later implicate Zheng during the Cultural Revolution, as he was unable to produce it when Lan, by that time Madame Mao, wanted it destroyed to avoid political consequences.^[1]

 

Lan returned to Shanghai with Tang, but their relationship continued to deteriorate. By May 1937, they officially divorced. Shortly after the divorce, Tang made another suicide attempt by jumping into the Suzhou Creek at Wusongkou but was rescued again. Unfazed, Lan moved on with a public relationship with theater director Zhang Min, who had just left his wife and children to be with her. In response to Tang’s second suicide attempt, Lan published an article in a magazine published by United Photoplay Service, titled “Why Tang Na and I Broke Up,” claiming she had left Tang for her own physical and mental well-being.^[1] After the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Lan left Shanghai for Yan'an, where she changed her name to Jiang Qing, and after a few whirlwind relationships with other men, married her fourth husband Mao Zedong in 1938.^[3]

During WWII, Tang went to the anti-Japanese frontlines and wrote war reports for Shanghai's Tai Kung Pao. Following the fall of Shanghai in 1937, Tang relocated to Wuhan where he created the anti-Japanese war play Long Live China. Soon after, he relocated to the war capital of Chongqing, where, in March 1938, Zhao Dan introduced him to a young actress, Chen Lu. The two fell in love and quickly married. They returned to the Japanese-occupied Shanghai, where Chen broke into the city's film industry with his help. He also gave her a stage name, Hong Ye ("Red Leaf"), to contrast with Lan Ping’s name ("Blue Apple").

In 1939, under the pen name Jiang Qi, he wrote the plays Chen Yuanyuan and The Road to Life in the isolated island of Shanghai. On May 1, 1940, his son, Ma Junshi, was born. In December 1942, following the outbreak of the Pacific War, Tang left Shanghai for Chongqing again, leaving Chen and their son behind. Chen later remarried a salt merchant. ^[4][5]

In Chongqing, he worked at Ying Yunwei’s Chinese Art Theatre Society, earning just enough to survive. When the theatre disbanded, he fell into poverty and unemployment. In his despair, he attempted suicide, his third time following two previous attempts caused by his marriage with Jiang Qing. At that time, Jiang, then wife of Mao Zedong in Yan’an, learned of his dire situation and arranged for a monthly allowance of 10 yuan to be sent to him through intermediaries. Each time he received the money, Tang would set aside 1 yuan to gather with his equally impoverished friends for a modest meal.

In Chongqing, Tang also had a brief relationship with the actress Kang Jian. In 1944, Tang established the China Amateur Theatre Society in Chongqing, serving as its president, with Feng Yidai as vice president. The theatre dissolved shortly due to poor attendance, leaving Tang in financial difficulty again. It was only in the final days of the Sino-Japanese War that Tang's fluency in English helped him secure a position at the British Embassy’s news department in China, which relieved him from his years of poverty. In 1945, when Mao Zedong, then husband of Jiang, was in Chongqing for the Chongqing Negotiations, Tang was invited to meet Mao at a house party hosted by Zhang Zhizhong, where Mao greeted him saying "Harmony above all.“ ^[4]

After China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War, he became the editor-in-chief of Shanghai's Shi Shi Xin Bao. In 1946, he became the editor-in-chief of Shanghai's Wenhui Bao. In August 1947, U.S. Presidential envoy Albert Wedemeyer held a press conference in Shanghai, and Tang was invited to attend. There, he fell for a reporter, Chen Runqiong, who was the third daughter of Chen Lu (no relation to Tang's second wife), the former Chinese ambassador to France.

In September 1948, Tang went to Hong Kong and became the editor-in-chief of Wen Wei Po.^[2] In 1949, Chen moved to Hong Kong for work, too. In February 1949, Chen left for the United States to work at the United Nations; Tang followed her there and worked for the overseas Chinese-language newspapers. Meanwhile, he wrote the script Before Returning Home. In 1951, when Chen moved to Paris, Tang followed yet again. That same year, Chen finally accepted Tang's persistent courtship, and they were married in Paris. Since then, he settled in Paris, changed his name to Ma Shaozhang, and ran a restaurant there. They had a daughter together, named Ma Yihua, meaning "missing China."^[4] After the downfall of the Gang of Four, which was led by his ex-wife Jiang Qing, Tang returned to China twice to visit his relatives. Before his death, he left a message for his daughter: "Don't be a fake foreigner; never forget your Chinese roots."^[2]