A native of northern Anhui, born in the 1960s and raised in the countryside by his maternal grandmother. Born with an unusual gift, he could hear the dead whispering beneath the loess by the age of ten. He has listened to their eerie voices for decades, keeping their secrets buried for half his life.
Growing up in the rural reaches of northern Anhui, he witnessed all manner of strange happenings among abandoned graves, wild ponds, ancient locust trees, and ruined village temples. On summer nights, he listened to his grandmother recount true stories; on winter nights, he huddled around the brazier and heard local tales of the uncanny. Every incident was something he had experienced firsthand or heard with his own ears.
As an adult, he became obsessed with the folk beliefs and customs surrounding yin and yang in his homeland. With no teacher to guide him, he taught himself, immersing himself in folk hauntings and traditional culture. He traveled through villages across northern Anhui, visiting elderly residents to verify old stories. He collected ancient books, miscellanies, and old records, teaching himself and pursuing the roots of rural mysteries and the taboos surrounding yin and yang.
Through all the ups and downs of half a lifetime, he never forgot his homeland, the eerie voices he heard as a child, or the secrets buried in the loess that the older generation dared not pass on. He writes with a firm refusal to invent fantasy, recording only true tales of the uncanny from rural northern Anhui. He recreates the sights and smells of country life in the 1960s, documenting folk taboos, the habits of wandering spirits, and sinister happenings in the wilderness.
