About Pai Hsien-yung
Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai (Chinese: 白先勇; pinyin: Bái Xiānyǒng; Wade–Giles: Pai Hsien-yung; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pe̍h Sian-ióng; born July 11, 1937) is a Taiwanese and American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He is often described as a "melancholy pioneer" of modern Chinese literature. Born in Nanning, Guangxi to Kuomintang general Bai Chongxi at the cusp of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Pai endured a childhood mired with illness, isolation, and constant migration across Chongqing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hong Kong before reuniting with his family in Taiwan in 1952. Pai co-founded the literary journal Xiandai wenxue while studying English literature at National Taiwan University, and later pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. Pai took up lecturing in 1965 as a professor of Chinese literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During his tenure, he prolifically produced short stories characterized by modernist influences. This culminated in Taipei People, his seminal short story collection illustrating the lives of post-war emigres. Additionally, Pai wrote Crystal Boys, a novel dealing with themes of homosexuality and sin and credited for popularizing the Tongzhi genre. After his retirement from lecturing in 1994, Pai's write transitioned to become more thematically cosmopolitan. Compiling work over four decades thematically ranging from the Cultural Revolution, the AIDS epidemic, and isolation in Chinese-American immigrant life, he published New Yorkers in 2007.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.