Hong Ying [Photo provided to China Daily]

Unlike traditional fairy tales that blur time and space, Hong's story contains many historical details and vividly depicts Chongqing by the Yangtze River.

But the realistic approach doesn't weaken the flavor of the fairy tale. In the story, Hong blends reality and magic, weaving the tale of a young boy, Sangsang, growing up in the 1970s, into the age-old mythical world of the Ba and life in the French navy barracks that was established in the 1900s, when the French colonized the city.

The main character is a way for Hong, who was born in 1962, to draw on her own childhood memories. "In a way, the boy is me," she says.

The theme for the latest story is empathy, in which Hong writes about how the kind-hearted but introverted Sangsang empathizes with an old lady who has lost her son. With the help and sacrifice of Liya, a witch of Ba, Sangsang helps the old lady deal with the grief of her son's death.

"The old lady is a real person from my childhood who lost two sons in a gang fight during the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76)," says Hong.

She says when she was a child, no one talked to the old lady and people were indifferent to her great loss. The old lady had many books in her home and read books to comfort herself.

But Hong felt close to the old lady and one day when Hong asked about the books, the old lady gave her one, which opened a door of literature for Hong.