Tributes pour in for best-selling author

As public memorials have been temporarily banned because of the COVID-19 epidemic, Liu and his colleagues hosted an online memorial for Rao on April 10.

"Rao Pingru was the most dignified elderly person I've ever seen," Liu recalls."Despite the misfortunes and sufferings in life, he maintained his decency and deep love for life. He carried himself well and treated everyone with kindness and respect."

According to his third son, Rao Lezeng, his father had scolded him for being impolite to a domestic helper just a few months before he passed away.

"He was a most upright man and strict with all the five of us children," Lezeng says."He could not compromise his principles even if he tried. That's probably the most important lesson he taught us."

As a child, Lezeng used to wear patched clothes to school because the family was at that time too poor to afford anything new for their five children.

"Mine were covered all over in patches, but carefully dyed in a consistent blue color so that my teachers marveled at it as a fine piece of handicraft," Lezeng recalls.