Images of angry Chinese students beating up Korean protesters in Seoul and attacking Carrefoursupermarkets at home may well have been the last thing Bo Yang, the controversial author of The Ugly Chinaman, saw before he died on Tuesday in Taiwan at the age of 88.

Mr Bo, renowned for his criticism of what he dubbed Chinese cultural tendencies towards authoritarianism, xenophobia and intolerance, spent nine years in prison in Taiwan. But he saved his most scathing criticism for China's Communist party, which he accused of drawing out the worst characteristics of the Chinese people.