 The first Chinese novel about laogai camps, it initiated the "High Wall" genre of literature (大墙文学; "high wall" being a euphemism for prison), which reflects on the traumas suffered by political prisoners in the camps during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution.Writer Wang Meng, who served as China's Minister of Culture, called Cong the "Father of High Wall Literature".Cong subsequently wrote a number of works in the "High Wall" genre, including the novella "Snow Falling Silently onto the Yellow River" (), the long novel "The Fugitive" (), which consists of three novellas, and the novella "Grave Stone for a Cat".