Reading much more into urban life

While author Murong Xuecun says he writes to entertain, some say he does much more.

"I do feel Murong Xuecun also acts out of a strong sense of moral obligation," says Harvey Thomlinson, who translated Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu, into English. The work was published by Hong Kong-based Make Do Publishing in 2010 as part of the Modern Chinese Masters series. Previously, the novel's English-language translation rights were purchased by independent publisher Allen and Unwin, and English versions were on shelves in Australia, Europe and the US. After the novel was translated into French, German, Spanish and Vietnamese, Thomlinson launched the Make-Do edition for wider circulation among English-language readers in China.

"It's a bit of a departure for a Chinese novelist to be running undercover sting operations and writing them up - somewhat along the lines of British writers like Upton Sinclair and George Orwell," Thomlinson says.