SocietySoundtrack: Murong Xuecun | As the Iron Curtain Falls, What Can Chinese People Do?

Murong Xuecun rose to fame more than 20 years ago with his online novel *Chengdu, Please Forget Me Tonight*. He later wrote about pyramid schemes and people at the margins, while increasingly criticizing reality. His books could no longer be published, his name could not appear, and his accounts repeatedly vanished. He left China in 2021 and spoke in Melbourne in August 2026 about exile, writing and those unable to leave China.