Father has passed away over thirteen years. He died at the age of seventy-six after being ill in bed for so long. He migrated from Hebei to Northeast with grandfather when Manchuria was under Japanese rule. He learned Japanese from Japanese at school. At seventeen he went to Shandong to try his luck as an interpreter for the Japanese troops because he couldn't bear the hardship grandfather suffered in house building. But soon he escaped on account of receiving a beating. Then he began study at Changchun Normal School which offered free meals to the students. He survived the besieged Changchun for getting permission to come out as an innocent student. He  had joined the PLA since.