Liu graduated from the Beijing Normal University in 1961, and afterwards taught in a middle school for 15 years. He became an editor for Beijing Publishing House in 1976. In the following year, his short story "A Teacher in Charge of a Class," which was considered the start of the trauma literature, caused a big stir, and obtained the Excellent National Short Story Award.

    Later he published a number of other novels like "The Position of Love," "Wake up," "Younger Brother," and "I Love Every Green Leaf," which also garnered the Excellent National Short Story Award.

    His representative novella includes "Ruyi," "Cloverleaf Intersection," and "A Small Block of Wood." The best-known full-length novels are "Bell and Drum Towers," "Four Decorated Archways," "The Building that Rests the Phoenix," and "Wind Passing through Ear."

    In 1985, his documentary writings "Long Camera Lens on May 19" and "Bus Aria" caused another sensation. He started a column called "personal album" in the magazine called "Harvest," starting a new form of style in a literature magazine with both pictures and essays. In 1999, he presented his novel "The Tree and Forest are Together," with plenty of pictures.

    After 1992, he produced a great number of informal essays, which later were collected and published in different volumes.

    Liu began to publish essays on the studies of "A Dream of Red Mansions" in 1993. Later these study results were published in the forms of novels and monographs.

    Liu made an attempt to comment on architecture in 1995. In succession he published two books, "Architecture and Environment in My Eyes" in 1998 and "The Beauty of Material" in 2004.

    Collected Works of Liu Xinwu, in eight volumes, was published in 1993. As of the beginning of 2005, the number of his writings in different editions published both in China and overseas have surpassed 130.

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