Ruan Wen
Names: Ruan WenProfessor Ruan
First appears in Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, chapter 1 (1)
Appearances
B1
B2
B3
What you know
Book 1: The Three-Body Problem
- Ch 1Ye Wenjie's college advisor and closest friend and confidante, other than her father, through the Cultural Revolution.
- Ch 1Ruan studied at Cambridge University and kept a refined home with European books, paintings, records, a piano and a collection of pipes.
- Ch 1Ruan gave Wenjie's father the pipe that had belonged to him.
- Ch 1During the Cultural Revolution Ruan's home was searched and her possessions seized; in struggle sessions Red Guards hung high heels around her neck and smeared lipstick on her face.
- Ch 1Ruan died by suicide with sleeping pills, sitting at her desk, wearing lipstick and high heels.
Connections
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 1Wenjie seeks Ruan Wen
After her father's death and hearing her mother's mad laughter at home, Wenjie wanders to Professor Ruan Wen's door.
- Book 1 · Ch 1Wenjie finds Ruan dead
Wenjie enters Ruan's restored but damaged home and finds her professor dead from sleeping pills. Numb, she leaves, then notices Ruan has put on lipstick and high heels, reclaiming the symbols used to humiliate her.