Han Han

Han Han (韩寒) (born September 23, 1982) is a Chinese best-selling author, professional rally driver, singer, blogger, and creator of Party and One (App magazine) He has published seven novels to date, and is represented by the Hong Kong-based Peony Literary Agency.

He is also involved in music production.

During his first year of high school (1999), Han won first prize in China's New Concept Writing Competition with his essay, Seeing Ourselves in a Cup (杯中窥人), on the Chinese national character.

Failing seven subjects at the year-end examination, Han was retained for a year in school.

This incident was reported in the media and ignited a heated debate on China's "quality education" (素质教育) policy, whether holistic or specialised learning should be implemented in schools, and other educational issues.

Following another seven subject failure in the senior middle school second year examinations, Han quit school.

After dropping out of school, Han worked on a series of essays – One Degree Below Freezing (零下一度), Press Release 2003 (通稿 2003), And I Drift (就这么漂来漂去), and Miscellaneous Essays (杂的文).

His essays were accepted into various publications.

Han's first novel, Triple Door (三重门), on life as a third-year junior school student in Shanghai, raised his prominence in China outside Shanghai.

With over twenty million copies printed, this novel is China's bestselling literary work in the last 20 years.

Other novels – Like a Speeding Youth (像少年啦飞驰), Riot in Chang'an City (长安乱), A Fortress (一座城池), Glory Days (光荣日), His Kingdom (他的国) were also published during this time.

Fueled by his love of racing, Han became a professional rally driver and wrote less frequently.

However, he continued to blog on current affairs, with some articles attracting a large number of readers and sparking intense debates.

Han's blog has registered well over 300 million hits, the largest online following of a personal blog in China.

In February 2005, a Hollywood movie was planned with the script to be based on Chinese writer Xie Hang's novel, Dysmenorrhoea (痛经), and filming to take place in a northern Chinese city.

As Han's image suited him to play the male lead role, the Chinese partner company recommended him for the role to the American producers.

When media outlets asked Han for his views on this matter, he replied, "I have yet to receive this invitation, but basically I would reject it."

He explained, "It doesn't matter that this is a Hollywood movie, as my decision would depend on who's playing the female lead."

On hearing that the script was about the forbidden love between a boy and his female teacher, Han laughed and rejected the role, saying, "This makes it even more difficult for me, I will not play such a role."

Han is also involved in music production.

His debut album, R-18 (十八禁, restricted to 18 and above), was released in September 2006, with all lyrics self-composed.

On 2 March 2006, Chinese literary critic and bookseller Bai Ye (白烨) published a blog post entitled, Status and Future of the Post-80 Generation (”80后“现状与未来), a harsh criticism of the works of writers born in the 1980–1989 period.

Han responded critically with his online article The "Literary Circle" Is Bullshit, Don't Act F**king Pretentious (文坛是个屁 谁都别装逼).

This exchange escalated into the "Han-Bai controversy", with both sides arguing on issues such as the post-80 classification, whether the works of post-80s qualified as literature and whether post-80 writers should be considered real writers.

On 4 March 2006, Bai published an online article entitled My Declaration – a Reply to Han Han (我的声明 – 回应韩寒), stating that Han's articles in this exchange had crossed the boundaries of literary debate into the realm of humiliation and personal attack.

Subsequently, writer Lu Tianming (陆天明), his director son Lu Chuan (陆川), and musician Gao Xiaosong (高晓松), entered the debate, which became the focus of the online community for a time.

Han debated with the above personalities on his blog.

The debate finally concluded with Bai, Lu Tianming, Lu Chuan, and Gao shutting down their personal blogs.

Questioning the value of modern Chinese free verse, Han posted a blog article on 26 September 2006 entitled Why do modern poetry and poets still exist? (现代诗和诗人为什么还存在).

In this and other related articles, he parodied modern Chinese poets including the late Xu Zhimo (徐志摩) and the late Hai Zi (海子), igniting a controversy involving poets such as the Lower Body Poet Shen Haobo, Yang Li (杨黎), Yi Sha (伊沙), and Dong Li (东篱), and claimed that 'both modern poets and poems are no longer in need of existence, and the genre of modern poetry is meaningless'(现代诗歌和诗人都没有存在的必要,现代诗这种体裁也是没有意义的).

This raised anger from Lower body poets.

Shen Haobo wrote in his blog: 'The genuine novelists can never sell more than Han Han's rubbish work.

This is the best writers and poets' own choice, and nothing to complain.

However, Han Hans still hate these all.' (真正的小说家们永远卖不过韩寒的文字垃圾. 这是优秀的作家和诗人的自我选择，没什么可抱怨的. 但是，韩寒们仍然会仇视这一切) When newspaper called Shen Haobo for an interview, Shen said he wouldn't talk about human's sense to a donkey (对一头驴就不用讲人的道理) so there is nothing to talk about.

In May 2010, Han Han was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

In September 2010, British magazine New Statesman listed Han Han at 48th place in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

In June 2010, Han Han was interviewed by CNN as China's rebel writer who has become the unofficial voice for his generation.

Han's first essay, Unhappy Days (不快乐地混日子), was published when he was attending junior middle school.

He was admitted to Shanghai's Song Jiang No. 2 High School (上海市松江二中) based on his sporting achievements.

In 2014, he became the product ambassador of Oneplus smartphone brand in China.