Author launches last work in children's fantasy series

Award-winning British-Chinese author Hong Ying recently launched her latest book, The Heart of the Rainbow, at the Memory and Urban Fairytales literary event in Beijing.

The book marks the finale of her first children's fantasy series, which is set in the 1970s in the fictional kingdom of Ba that's inspired by Chongqing, the author's birthplace by the Yangtze River.

Set in a time before the reform and opening-up, the book, according to Hong Ying, looks at living conditions in a city like Chongqing, "slightly backward compared to Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, and their (residents') views on beauty or their own lives after living in poverty.