Liu Sola with her band in rehearsal. Jiang Dong

Liu says she was not allowed to study modern composition at her time at the academy. During her five years of studies at the music school (1977-83), Liu composed a series of classical music pieces, including a piano suite and a symphony.

Her heart, however, was in Chinese and African-American roots-music, and her head was deeply into existentialist writers such as Jack Kerouac and J.D Salinger.

"Unfortunately," she says, "we had to do so many things we didn't want to do in order to do something we longed to do."

Since she was not allowed to use her inner voice in music, Liu turned to literature, penning many controversial novels.

When her first novel You Have No Choice (Ni Bie Wu Xuanze) came out in 1985, it created a sensation. Regarded as the representative avant-garde piece in the contemporary literature of China, the novel depicts a group of music students trapped in the same frustrating situation she experienced at the Central Conservatory. The characters don't want to be institutionalized, and rebel against authority and regulation.

The novel instantly won Liu such fame the public almost forget she was a musician until late 1990s.

Thanks to the novel, Liu got a chance to visit America in 1987 on a writing exchange fellowship. Instead of visiting popular tourist attractions, she traveled to Columbus, Memphis, Nashville and New York, where many jazz and blues giants practice their art. She was also listening to Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. "Their music and blues struck a chord in me the first time I heard it," she says. "I suddenly discovered a part of me that is very black.

"In China, I tried hard to escape the academic restrains, but couldn't find an outlet until I heard the real music of African Americans in the United States."

The experience of joining underground blues musicians at humble motels and grass-roots bars was an experience that taught Liu to "pay attention to the rebellious details."