"Writing a fairy tale, one often needs to go back to one's childhood to use a child's eyes and mind to see and think about the world," she says.

Born in 1976, Long spent her early years moving around with her father, who helped build hydropower stations. Before her first birthday, she left her hometown with her family for the west of Central China's Hunan province. In the following years, the family traveled between the countryside and cities, the two different worlds in her eyes where people spoke two languages and lived completely different lifestyles.

Scenes of wharves, stations, streets, hotels, coaches and trains filled her memories. Although at that time the family was poor and travels were a toil, Long says she experienced more fun, beauty and innocence, especially when schools and parents did not demand that she study hard, allowing her to spend time playing with friends on mountains and in rivers, hiking or conceiving pranks.

However, she also has a clear memory from when she was 4 years old of a flood washing away their home, and at 6, witnessing a big fire as if half of the sky was burning. Her deepest memory about life when she was 8 years old was the fear of seeing "small figures" after dark and the family's constant moving.