[2] He was immediately noticed as a writer critical of authority when he published, in the first issue of Fujian Literature he edited in 1986, the short story Black Horses (黑马群).
[3] Bei Cun was part of the generation of writers who, after the Cultural Revolution, experimented with new languages, including fastidious descriptions of objects and landscapes, and deliberate repetitions.
The novel depicts organized crime in Republican China through the ruthless fight between the bosses of two criminal families in Fujian, Liu Lang and Ma Da.
[4] Bei Cun's subsequent novels puzzled some Christian readers because, unlike The Baptismal River, the religious theme was not at the center of the plot.
Li Bailing is a rich businessman known as a philanthropist but hides two dark secrets, an incestuous relation with his adopted daughter and the murder of the policeman who tortured his father to death.
[3][1] The themes of crime and repentance are also at the center of Bei Cun's later Christian novels, I Have an Agreement with God (我和上帝有个约, 2006) and A Consolation Letter (安慰书, 2016).
In these stories, Bei Cun's "faith-writing" situates his characters in a larger social context,[3] and hope prevails upon fear even in tragic circumstances.