Nantong native Fan Xiaoqing (范小青)?was born in Suzhou City of east China's Jiangsu Province. She was enrolled at the Department of Chinese Languages and Literature of Soochow University in 1978 and graduated from the school in 1982. After serving as a lecturer on literary theories at the university for three years, she was transferred to the Writers Association of Jiangsu Province in 1985 and has been writing ever since. She is now the chairwoman of the Writers Association of Jiangsu Province and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Fan published her first story in 1980. So far, she has published 18 novels, including "A Woman Comrade," "Barefoot Doctor Wan Quanhe" and "Incense;" and more than 300 novellas and short stories, including "A Brief History of Country and City." She has also written many essays and screenplays.
Fan's works have been published in many languages, including English, French, Japanese and Korean. Her short story "A History of Cities and Villages" won the Lu Xun Literature Prize; her novel "Expression of a City" won the Five-One Project Award and the Short Story Award of China Fiction Academy. She also won many awards given out by Chinese magazines such as Selected Stories, Fiction Monthly, Selected Novellas, Selected Chinese Literature Works, People's Literature and Beijing Literature.