Murong Xuecun is the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 of a Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 author Hao Qun. His debut work, Chengdu, Leave Me Alone Tonight (成都，今夜请将我遗忘), has been read by many Chinese people over the internet. It was later translated into English as Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu. On July 22, 2008 Murong made the long list for the Man Asian Literary Prize

Man Asian Literary Prize

The Man Asian Literary Prize, founded in 2007, is an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year...

. , his microblog account has nearly 1.1 million followers.

Criticism of Chinese authorities

In his feature story

Feature story

- Published Features & news :While the distinction between published features and news is often clear, when approached conceptually there are few hard boundaries between the two. It is quite possible to write a feature in the style of a news story, for instance...

 in Aftenposten

Aftenposten

Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...

 in 2011, his criticism of Chinese authorities included claims that for detainees of China, there are a number of "odd ways of dying while under arrest" — at least one individual allegedly "died while playing hide-and-seek", and at least another allegedly "died while he was drinking water", and at least one allegedly "died while he was dreaming".

External Links

• Word Crimes: "Murong Xuecun is a novelist who writes about corruption in China. In the last year, he has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of censorship." NYTimes Video, November 2011