Liang's father left his poverty-stricken hometown village in Shandong province to struggle for a better life in Harbin, landing a job as a construction worker and later assigned to far-flung areas to support various industrial developments.

"My father only had a 12-day break to return home and reunite with the family every two years. We barely saw my father at home when we were young," recalls Liang.

Demonstrating his gift in writing when working on a farm in rural Heilongjiang province from the late 1960s to early 1970s, Liang was transferred to work as a scriptwriter at the Beijing Film Studio in 1977. This move launched his career as a professional writer.

"It was not until many years later that I was capable of having more time to spend with my father. He came to live with me in Beijing, but he was already a gray-haired old man by then," says the emotional Liang, who published a biographical novel to commemorate his father in 2005.