Liu Hong's Startling Moon

Liu Hong was described as a rare Chinese writer for whom life during the Cultural Revolution was not pure misery. Rather, her works testify to the moments of happiness she experienced growing up on the mainland despite political and economic hardship.

Unsurprisingly, her first book Startling Moon (2001) was compared to other more successful memoirs such as Nien Cheng's Life and Death in Shanghai (1986) and June Chang's Wild Swans (1991).

Liu grew up near the Korean border in Manchuria, and for a long time she never understood the lengths her mother went to keep the family safe. It was not until she was in her 30s - when a stranger in England asked her about her childhood - that she discovered the truth.

"I'd told people it wasn't hard, but suddenly realized my parents had protected me from the suffering of my elders," Liu recalled.

Her maternal grandparents had been labelled "rightists" and exiled to the countryside for 10 years. But to a naive Liu, their peasant life sounded idyllic in their letters. Her mother kept her parents' identity a secret to ensure that she and her brother would grow up as ordinary children.

"I had always thought I had a normal childhood. Because I was so well-protected, I had some good times. I even enjoyed being a Red Guard."

But once the full realization hit, Liu was saddened to think that neither her parents nor grandparents had a voice. Startling Moon was her effort to recover one for them.

Incidentally, Startling Moon was named after a piece of poetry by Tang poet Wang Wei (王维).

On her English writing skills, Liu noted that "Chinese language and culture are like the soil that gave me nutrients, but English is the language that has made me free."