Jiang Rong (pen name of Lu Jiamin), who is now 62, was born in Jiangsu Province, China, and educated in Beijing. In 1967, at age 21, he volunteered to go and work in Inner Mongolia, where he'd heard about the practice of people there paying homage to "wolf totems" erected in the rolling grasslands that stretch as far as the eye can see.
During his 11-year stay in Inner Mongolia, Jiang fell afoul of the authorities over his political views and was imprisoned for three years. After returning to Beijing in 1978, he successfully passed graduate school exams and went on to study at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, where he was active in the Xidan Democratic Wall Movement. Then, while working as a political-science researcher after graduation, in 1989 he joined the Tiananmen Square protests and was again imprisoned.
His book, the autobiographical novel "Wolf Totem," was published in Chinese under his pen name in 2004. Within five days, the first edition had sold out.