 Following his release in 1978, he published China's first novel on laogai and founded the "High Wall Literature" genre that depicts the traumas suffered by political prisoners in the labor camps.Highly influential in the post-Cultural Revolution literary scene, his works have been translated into many languages.Cong was born on 7 April 1933 in Daiguantun, Zunhua County (now part of Yutian County) in Hebei, Republic of China.