She did not begin primary school until age 10, and a year later moved to Hangzhou with her grandmother, who died shortly after.
In 1944, she married Wang Xiaoping, who was born in Singapore but arrived in China to fight the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
[4] The 1958 short story "Lilies" was criticized by some for its "bourgeois sentimentality"[4] but became popular after it was praised by Minister of Culture and author Mao Dun.
Many of her stories of this period were intended to show popular support for the revolution and the communist party.
[3] She served as Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary for the Shanghai Writer's Association.