I Always Wanted To Be A Writer.

My Father Said He Was Going To Write To The Jinzhou City Party Committee Asking For Permission To 'talk About Love'...my Mother Supposed It Was A Bit Like Asking Permission From The Head Of The Family...the Communist Party Was The New Patriarch.

As A Child, My Idea Of The West Was That It Was A Miasma Of Poverty And Misery, Like That Of The Homeless 'little Match Girl'in The Hans Christian Andersen Story. When I Was In The Boarding Nursery And Did Not Want To Finish My Food, The Teacher Would Say:'think Of All The Starving Children In The Capitalist World!

While I Was Writing Wild Swans I Thought The Famine Was The Result Of Economic Mismanagement But During The Research I Realised That It Was Something More Sinister.

I Feel Perhaps My Heart Is Still In China.

I Would Love Mainland Chinese To Read My Book. There Is A Chinese Translation Which I Worked On Myself, Published In Hong Kong And Taiwan. Many Copies Have Gone Into China But It Is Still Banned.