Wang Shuo

Wang Shuo was born in Nanjing in 1958 and moved with his family to Beijing a year later. After his parents were sent to the countryside during Mao's Cultural Revolution, he and his brother, a pair of protected military brats, had he run of Beijing. It proved to be a good training for Wang's adolescent years, when he skipped school, was involved in petty crimes, street fights, and girl chasing, even landing in jail on at least one occasion.