Murong Xuecun was one of the brightest stars of China’s literary scene, his novels offering searing critiques of contemporary social issues that few other writers dared to imitate.
But after a decade of diminishing freedom of speech under President Xi Jinping, he could not publish in his own country and was eventually forced into exile. His fate mirrors that of many liberal Chinese intellectuals who tried to shine a light on the system and then fled abroad, were im-prisoned or fell silent.
The 48-year-old writer, whose real name is Hao Qun, left China in August last year after writing “Deadly Quiet City”, a non-fiction account of the 2020 Wuhan coronavirus lockdown released in March.
His Australian publisher believed he would “definitely get arrested” after the book’s release, Murong told AFP from his home in Melbourne.
“They urged me to leave immediately.”
Fearing imminent arrest, Murong sent each page as he wrote it to a friend overseas using encryption software, before deleting it from his computer.
“I told my friend: ‘No matter what happens to me, this book must be published.’”