Murong Xuecun is one of contemporary China’s most famous authors.  Born in 1974 in China’s North East, he spent his childhood in Jilin province. In 1996 he graduated from China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. Afterwards he worked as a senior sales manager for a car company. He started to write in 2001. In 2002 when his novel Leave Me Alone: A novel of Chengdu (published in China as Chengdu Please Forget Me Tonight) took China by storm, Murong gave up his job and devoted himself to writing full time. As he declined to join the China Writers’ Society, he is regarded as an ‘independent’ writer. In the past few years he has travelled around China, living in Chengdu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Hainan Island and Lhasa. He currently lives in Guangzhou where he has started his own advertising company. His other books include Heaven on the Left, Shenzhen on the Right, Countless People Die of Greed and, most recently, Dancing Through Red Dust.