Police Officer and Artist Ji Rentai

The Ji family were farmers by the Yongding River for generations. It was not until Ji Rentai's grandfather that they moved into the city to work in a factory. His father was a university professor, and his mother was a police officer. Ji Rentai was born in 1951 and had younger siblings. In elementary school, he took a master and learned meticulous painting and piano from his master and master's wife. He also studied Russian, Japanese, and Korean. In 1966, schools across the country suspended classes. At the end of 1967, he was among the first group sent to work at a farm in Heilongjiang. He returned to the city in 1972, went back to school, and graduated in 1975, when he was assigned to work at a research institute. After marrying his master's niece, Mei Yuhua, they had two sons. In 1978, with financial support from his master and master's wife, he went to Japan to pursue a master's degree and began selling his paintings there. After returning to China, he became a police officer, completed his doctorate at a Chinese university, and helped draft laws. He went on to become a visiting professor at universities and Party schools, and signed an agreement with an orphanage to support three girls. His wife, Mei, passed away in 1997. In 1998, he became vice governor and married Zou Shanhuan. Because of the nature of his work, he was attacked and injured several times. In 2002, he was transferred to the western region, where he maintained public order, went to the countryside to alleviate poverty, and investigated officials who took bribes to buy their posts. He was transferred back to Beijing in 2008. In 2016, his youngest daughter returned to China to work after completing a medical doctorate in Japan.