The heartbeat of home

Where it all began

Born in 1973 into a modest rural family in Nanyang, Henan, Liang is the fifth of six children. Soon after her eldest sister was admitted to Nanyang Medical College, their mother fell ill. The sister helped shoulder the family's financial burden with their father and urged Liang, in letters, to pursue education as "the only way out".

An avid reader and writer from childhood, Liang graduated from Nanyang No 4 Normal School in 1991 and worked in a rural school for three years. She later earned an associate degree at Nanyang Institute of Education, completed a bachelor's degree through self-study, and then obtained a master's degree from the Chinese Language Department at Zhengzhou University, as well as a PhD in literature from Beijing Normal University.

In 2003, she began teaching at the China Youth University of Political Studies. She returned to Liangzhuang village once or twice a year, staying for a week or two. Over time, she felt a growing gap between her academic research and rural reality.

In the summer of 2008, she took her 3-year-old son back to Liangzhuang and conducted in-depth fieldwork for nearly two months, driven by the desire to "feel the most direct bond between my soul and the land", she says.

Each day, she spoke with villagers alongside her father, recorded conversations, and organized notes at noon. She had no fixed plan, only a clear instinct: she did not want to write a novel or an academic thesis. Published in 2010, China in Liangzhuang sparked a wide discussion, and won prizes including the People's Literature Award. A taxi driver even went to great lengths to track her down to say, "Thank you for speaking up for us rural people."

She wrote, "In a sense, the village is the womb of a nation", and later noted in interviews with foreign media that the work focuses not on material poverty, but on cultural shifts and farmers' spiritual dilemmas amid development. By the time Liangzhuang Ten Years was published in 2021, Liangzhuang had seen great changes: better transport ended its isolation, the wages of migrant workers increased, living environments improved, and rivers ran clearer.