Ying Ruocheng was born into a well-to-do Manchu family in Beijing in 1929.

His grandfather, Vincentius Ying (Chinese name Ying Lianzhi), joined the 1898 Reform Movement. He was hounded by the Qing rulers and forced to flee from Beijing to Tianjin to escape further persecution.

"But he didn't give up," Ying Ruocheng wrote of his grandfather in an article published in Time (Asia) magazine in 1999.

He founded Ta Kung Pao in 1902 in Tianjin, the first modern newspaper in North China, and co-founded Furen University in Beijing in 1924, after the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was overthrown and China became a republic.

Ying Ruocheng's father Ying Qianli was a university professor and translator.

Ying Ruocheng was educated at a missionary school in Tianjin before going to Tsinghua in 1945 to study foreign languages and literature.

Since he had always been interested in theatre, he joined student drama groups to support the student cause to end the civil war that was started by the Kuomintang.

After graduating from Tsinghua in 1950, he joined the newly founded Beijing People's Art Theatre as a professional actor.

"The company opened up its repertory to include classical pieces by Shakespeare, Chekhov and Chinese playwrights from before liberation," Ying recalled.

"We opened a new theatre, with state-of-the-art facilities, and even imported a Russian expert as our resident artistic director," Ying wrote. "He helped us produce Maxim Gorky's Yegor Bulychev and Others."

Between stage appearances, Ying picked up his pen to translate Chinese playwrights' works into English and the works of foreign playwrights into Chinese.

During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), he was jailed for three years.

Ying served as vice-Minister of Culture between 1986 and 1990.

Although Ying left no will, he repeatedly told his children he did not want a formal funeral. A simple family gathering to the accompaniment of Mozart's Requiem would be the best way to remember him, he said.

He is survived by his son Ying Da, daughter Ying Xiaole and grandchildren.

(China Daily December 31, 2003)