Xia published his first short story in 1992, and got the chance to study at Lu Xun Literature Academy in Beijing in 1996, at the recommendation of Liu Qingbang, writer of the Lao She Literature Prize-winning Sacred Wood, whose film adaptation Blind Shaft won the Silver Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival.

He had to bribe his coalmine boss with expensive liquor and cigarettes to get his consent to make the trip.

And he didn't return but stayed in Beijing when the one-year stint ended.

After working on and off as book editor at a few culture companies, he finally became a features journalist at Southern Weekly, one of the country's best-known and widely circulated weekly newspapers, in 2002.

The Sound of Darkness is a retrospective of Xia's works over the years.

"I have been trying to purge the darkness life has imposed on me and recover the light inherent in my nature," he says.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/12/2011 page22)