The translator started to make his name in 1956, when his translation of Galina Nikolaeva's Director of the Machine Tractor Station and the Chief Agronomist became popular and was serialized by China Youth magazine, which published 3 million copies an issue. However, during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the translator, regarded as "the agent of Sholokhov" and "a revisionist USSR spy", was sent to do farm work in the countryside.
Но в итоге "банду четырех" свергли, имя Цао ина обелили и признали его классиком китайской школы перевода.
