Lao Shê (1899-1966) was the pen name of the Chinese novelist Shu Ch'ing-ch'un. The prolific output of this humorist, patriot, and realist also included poetry, several volumes of short stories, and many plays.

Of Manchu descent, Lao Shê was born in Peking (now Beijing). His family could not have been well off, since he was never formally enrolled in a college, though for a short period he registered for courses at Yenching University. In 1924, after teaching Chinese for some time at Nankai Middle School in Tientsin, he left for England to teach his native language at London University's School of Oriental Studies.

Once abroad, Lao Shê studied English novels primarily to improve his command of the language; Dickens so appealed to him that he wrote a comic novel in imitation of Nicholas Nickleby, entitled Lao Chang ti chê-hsüeh (The Philosophy of...