Video: The heartbeat of home

Liang Hong, a renowned writer and literature professor at Renmin University of China, felt a quiet thrill at returning to her hometown, Liangzhuang village.

She shared her anticipation on WeChat Moments, attaching an article about her discussion with economist Liu Shouying on Liangzhuang's development, and rural China. The post marked the 15th anniversary of her first nonfiction work, China in Liangzhuang.

From 2010 to 2021, Liang published the Liangzhuang Trilogy: China in Liangzhuang, Exodus from Liangzhuang, and Liangzhuang Ten Years. The village in her books, described as Wuzhen town, Rangxian county, is a pseudonym for her real hometown in Nanyang, Henan.

The trilogy captures the shifting lives of left-behind communities, follows migrant workers' struggles in cities, and reflects on rural China over a decade. Widely read, it has become a key reference in studies of the countryside.