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A while ago, Chen's students at Fujian Normal University, where he teaches Japanese literature, complained to the authorities that the course he offered was too high on "erotic" texts.

"I think people tend to associate high moral ground with literature and art, even as they do not necessarily adhere to those lofty standards in real life," says Chen. "It's a bit like a man who routinely sleeps with his mistress but treats his wife all 'good' and 'proper' when he's back home."

It's not been an easy journey, but Chen seems too rooted in China to want to emigrate elsewhere like some of his fellow writers have.

"I lived in a foreign country before (he was a student in Japan in the early 1990s, supposedly working as a 'mamasan' or brothel manager by night)," says Chen. "I realize a writer has to be present on the soil about which he writes. To an extent, a writer is like a politician who needs to be present where his people are."

He insists that there is a violent, ruthless streak in him that comes from his political beliefs.

But after reading Our Bones, Chen's touching love story of an elderly couple, we are inclined to believe he is a closet romantic.