How did you first become a writer?
In the beginning I just wrote for fun online - I didn't take it seriously. Then people liked what I wrote, I was approached by publishers, and here we are.
You published your first short story Goodbye Vivian [translated as Goodbye An in The Road of Others] online in 1998, well before internet writing had taken off. Why did you decide to write online?
For pleasure, to kill time, to grow a hobby and to express my thoughts and emotions. It was rare back then for people to write online - there were a couple of forums for Chinese who studied overseas to publish their literary works. We were just having a good time together. What was the scene like? It was an entirely different time. Online writers were few, internet users were well-educated [mostly IT workers, or people in foreign trade, the commerce industry, or PhD students who studied overseas]. Unlike now, a middle school student rarely had access to the internet. In addition, online writers were very serious about what they wrote. Today, I don't pay attention at all to online writers now that the internet has been popularised.
You were working in a bank when you decided to leave your hometown Ningbo in Zhejiang province, to try to write and travel. What did your parents think?
My parents were against my giving up my stable job in the bank. But I am rebellious and stubborn, so I went against their will. When I gave up my job there were risks of course, [but] to go somewhere new was very appealing to me. I didn't fear it - maybe my parents were more afraid than I was. At that time, I hadn't published any books yet, I was still at the 'online writing' phase. I was 25 years old. I was tired of my life and my city. I was looking for a new life.