Xu Zechen was born in Donghai, Jiangsu Province in 1978. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University, and now he lives in Beijing. His works include Jerusalem, Gate at the Midnight, Night Train, Running Through Zhongguancun, and etc.. In 2009 he went to Creighton University to be a resident writer. In 2010 he participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Some of his works are translated into German, English, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Mongolian, Dutch, Russian and Spanish. If Heavy Snow Blocks up the Door won the sixth Lu Xun Literature Prize•Short Novel Prize. In 2014, Jerusalem was selected as the first one of the ten Chinese Books by Yazhou Zhoukan, one of the annually recommended novels by http://cul.sohu.com/s2014/literature/ and one of the ten books recommended by http://book.sina.com.cn/z/top10books2014/. In 2015, this book was selected as one of the ten nominated works for the ninth Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Running Through Zhongguancun is a book by Xu Zechen, a post-70s talented young writer. It is this book that has established his reputation. It includes the writer’s three works, i.e, Running Through Zhongguancun, Heaven and Earth, and Ju Yan, all telling about the living conditions of Beijing floaters. These young people, small potatoes at the rock-bottom of the society of Beijing, live a hard life but are full of vitality and passion for life, and envision a bright future. Running Through Zhongguancun is familiar to many people and has become a culture brand which enables the young people to understand Beijing and Zhongguancun. The book is a representative work among the literary works which give expression to the endeavor and lives of people in Beijing and to their love of the city.