"Fuxi Fuxi" won him the national Prize for Best Novelettes in 1987, and was the basis for the movie Ju Dou.
Though perhaps less well known than some of Zhang Yimou's more celebrated films (notably Ju Dou, To Live and Raise the Red Lantern), Shanghai Triad was nevertheless generally praised by critics upon its release, with an 85% "fresh" rating on the review-database, Rotten Tomatoes.