Su Tong (蘇童) was born on January 23, 1963 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He lived in Suzhou during his childhood and teenage years. He graduated from the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1984. He learned to write while at university and published short stories and poems in 1983. His was also a teacher and literature editor. He now lives in Nanjing, and he is a professional writer of the Jiangsu Writers Association.
His best known novellas include "Wives and Concubines," "Blush," "Family of the Opium Poppy," and "Three Lanterns." His novels include "Rice," "My Life as Emperor," "The Boat to Redemption," and "A Tale of Siskin." He has also written more than 100 short stories, including "Watermelon Boats," "Tale of the Abandoned Baby," "Pig Heads in the Snow," and "Arrowhead." He won the Man Asian Literary Prize (2009) and Chinese Media Literature Award (2010) for his work "The Boat to Redemption." His short story "Arrowhead" won the Lu Xun Literary Prize in 2010.