Cao Naiqian jokes that his literary passion is the least important pursuit in his life. 'First of all, I'm a peasant,' says Cao, who recently spent a month in Hong Kong at an international writers' workshop organised by Hong Kong Baptist University. 'Secondly, I'm a musician, then, a policeman. Finally, I'm a writer.'
Born into a peasant family, Cao joined a dance and music troupe before making his career in the Public Security Bureau, an institution known as a government tool for crushing freedom of expression.
But Cao is no writer of propaganda. His short stories, typically set in his native Shanxi province, are powerful and vivid tales of rural life, told from the underdog's perspective.
Swedish sinologist Goran Malmqvist, a member of the Nobel Prize committee and the man behind Gao Xingjian winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000, has translated Cao's works into Swedish and calls him 'a writer of genius. It's quite possible that he will get the prize.'
Yet as a young man Cao never dreamed of a literary career. He wanted to be a professional musician. To pursue that ambition, he headed for the ... coal mines.
Coal is the backbone of industry in Shanxi province and in the 1960s every mine had its own song and dance ensemble. Cao was keen to join, but carving out a career as a musician wasn't easy. 'I had to work for a year as a miner,' the 56-year-old writer says. 'I took this as some kind of test. From the start, I wanted to join the band.'