Career
His debut work Leave Maine Alone: A Novel of Chengdu (Chinese: 成都，今夜请将我遗忘), which was distributed online, propelled him to stardom. As of November 2011, his microblog account has nearly 1.1 million followers. Murong"s writing deals mostly with social issues in contemporary China, exploring themes such as corruption, business-government relations, and general disillusionment over modern life.
His literature is known for its nihilistic, realist, racy, and fatalist style.
Following his rise to fame, Murong has emerged as one of the foremost critics of censorship in China. In 2009, Murong Xuecun wrote an exposé on a pyramid scheme in Jiangxi province.
The work, China: In the Absence of a Remedy (Chinese: 中国，少了一味药), was a first-hand account of Murong"s personal experiences with the pyramid scheme network that lasted twenty-three days. In his acceptance speech for the Prize, Murong wrote a scathing commentary about his editor that he worked with for China: In the absence of a remedy.
He also launched into a critique of the state of censorship in China in general.
The speech was banned at the awards ceremony, but made its rounds across the internet. The draft of the speech was translated into English and delivered to the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club in February 2011, followed by a publication by The New York Times in November 2011. In the draft, Murong alluded to a wide array of censorship restrictions, including limits on discussing current affairs, contemporary personalities, and being forced to change the phrase "Chinese people" to "some people" in parts of his work.
More obscure restrictions were also discussed, such as scrubbing the use of "Henan people" because it carries the air of regional discrimination, and removing references to "India-flavoured farts" because the editor was concerned about a diplomatic rift between China and India.
Murong wrote that "The only truth is that we cannot speak the truth. The only acceptable viewpoint is that we cannot express a viewpoint.
We cannot criticise the system, we cannot discuss current affairs, we cannot even mention distant Ethiopia.".
