Liu Xianping
Liu Xianping is China's originator of Contemporary Literature in nature writing. He was born in 1938 and became an apprentice in his early teens after his parents died young. His pathway to education and study was complex and difficult. after graduating from Zhejiang University, he worked as a teacher for 10 years. He became an editor for a literary journal in 1972 and in 1984, become a chief editor. He was elected vice chairman of the Writers' Association of Anhui Province in 1988 and oversaw the operation in 1995. In 1996 he was elected a committee member of the Political Consultative Committee of Anhui Province and went on to become a counsellor of the People's Government of Anhui Province in 2000.
He began to publish his literary work in 1957 but abandoned writing in 1963 just before the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. He joined a scientific observation team to study animal in the wild in the 1970s and also started going on field observation treks on his own. he loves exploring the natural world and his footprints have been left on the lofty ridges of the towering mountains as well as the Gobi Desert of China.
Liu Xianping resumed writing in 1978 and has dedicated himself to the creation of modern literature concerning the natural world, so that wildlife can be protected and man and nature can live together amicably. His representative works are four full length novels about the difficulties and hardships that children have experinced and endured in order to protect wild animals- and more than 30 documentaries about his adventures in the natural world.
The four full-length novels have been republished many times and have already been selected as illustrious and classic books; the documentaries of his adventures have been included in several collections- some of them into national textbooks. Several have been translated into other languages.
By initiating the idea of using Modern Literature for writing about nature he has opened up a new style of literary creation which has become an aesthetic banner. An Exploration of the Wonderful Sea of Clouds , which he wrote in 1978, has been deemed to be a representative work of Chinese Modern Literature writing about nature. On eight occasions his works have been awarded national prizes. In 1992 the national State Council recognized him as an expert who has made an outstanding conriburtion and he has been invited to give lectures in France, Britain, America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and other countries.
He is now 70 years old but he still involves himself in his observations of the natural world.
