Abstract: Once a biography, autobiography, memoir or other works of life writing is published and circulated, it becomes part of social discourse. The accomplishment and social value of life writing lies in communication. The range of the circulation, its depth and time span, determines the size of the value. The fundamental premise for the circulation of overseas life writing of Chinese people is the discourse system of the life writers. The life writing discourses offer perspectives on the world, life and values; it is also a system of concepts and ideas. Successful life writings of overseas Chinese share “the greatest common divisor” in mainstream discourse. “The greatest common divisor” is a practical guideline and value system to sum up and keep in memory the major common elements, guarantee the “bottom line” and “discourse power” of the genre and enhance the production and circulation of overseas life writing of Chinese people.

Key words: Overseas Chinese, life writing, discourse cross space and time， dissemination, greatest common divisor

Wang Binjun (1957 - ) is a Senior Editor of China Youth Publishing Group and a board director in the Biography Society of China. Wang graduated from Beijing Normal University in 1982 and joined the China Youth Press as an publishing editor. During his 31 years, Wang Binjun has served as director of the Editing Department, and director editor of Central Editing Office. The biographies that he edited include Zhang Daqian: A biography, Guo Moruo, Zhuge Liang: A Critical Biography, Cao Cao: A Critical Biography, Sun Quan: A Critical Biography, Sima Yi : A Critical Biography, Lei Feng，and Life = Time + Faith: the Story of Dr. Guo Shenyuan and so on.  He is also interested in theory of biography.