Hung Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She grew up in Beijing during the time of communist force, Mao Tse-tung, the Cultural Revolution, Tieneman Square. After graduating from high school in 1968, she was sent to the countryside where she worked with peasants seven days a week in the rice and wheat fields, over a four-year period During this time she photographed and drew portraits of loca