Jia Pingwa, a prominent and celebrated writer and essayist, was born in 1952 into a farming family in Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province. He began to write while studying in the Chinese department of Northwest University in Xi’an. Jia Pingwa first achieved fame in the 1970s and 1980s with his award-winning short stories and novellas, the majority of which are set in Jia’s rural homeland in Shangzhou Prefecture. After Jia graduated in 1976, he worked as an editor at the Shaanxi People’s Publishing House. Since then he has become a full-time writer.
Jia is known for his realistic depiction of the culture and life of Shaanxi Province. His writing often focuses on peasant life during China’s reforms and urbanization since 1978. He is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), president of the Shaanxi Writers Association, deputy to the People’s Congress of Xi’an, and president of the Writers Association of Xi’an.
Jia is a tenacious and prolific writer. His works include The Collected Award-Winning Novellas of Jia Pingwa, The Collected Works of Jia Pingwa, and novels including Shang Zhou, White Nights, Earth Gate, Old Gao Village, Remembering Wolves, Happy, and the autobiographical novel I Am a Farmer.
His December and January was awarded the best novel of the Third National Novellas. His story “Full Moon” won the National Short Story Award, and the Prix Femina Prize went to Abandoned Capital. Turbulence won the Pegasus Prize for Literature as well as the French Arts and Literature Prize. In November 2008, Jia Pingwa won the Mao Dun Literary Prize for his twelfth novel, Shaanxi Opera.
