[4] In September 2010, The New Statesman ranked him 48th on its list of “The World’s 50 Most Influential Figures of 2010.”[5] Han's first essay, Unhappy Days (不快乐地混日子), was published when he was attending junior middle school.

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.

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.

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."

Writers of previously unpublished non-cover story articles in the magazine would be paid RMB 1,000 per 1,000 characters, 10 to 20 times higher than standard rates in the publishing industry.

Within five days of putting up the blog post, Han received over 10,000 article submissions from across China, and also a few thousand résumés.

There were several articles of the types which Han had expressly forbidden from submission, such as cut and paste jobs, pornographic literature and dissertations.

[17] Han's setup of his magazine received widespread attention, with editors proclaiming that the higher fees enabled the writing profession to regain a measure of financial independence and dignity.

[19] Due to certain publishing and circulation restrictions in China, Han's magazine, which was originally planned for publication in August 2009, remained unpublished for some time.

[25] Han himself admitted that writers and race car drivers in China earned less compared to those in other professions.

[Taking advantage of racing-related] advertising opportunities would earn me more than RMB 3 million, but I'm afraid that once I get started in this, I would not be able to stop.

The following highlights some of Han's achievements in his racing career: After his experiences at the WRC Rally Australia in 2009, he wrote a blog post entitled Report on supervision and guidance work in preparation for the WRC in Australia (赴澳大利亚监督指导世界拉力锦标赛的工作报告), using irony to express dissatisfaction with China's standards of race management, economic conditions, political consciousness of the population, etc.

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).

Shen also declined a newspaper interview over Han’s words, stating that he did not wish to talk about human sense to a “donkey.”[35] On 10 April 2007, Han criticised rock singer Zheng Jun's (郑钧) capriciousness in a blog post entitled Some Recent Arrangements (最近的一些安排), igniting a debate between the two.

On 15 January 2012, the blogger, technology entrepreneur, and former Baidu employee Mai Tian alleged in a blog post that the majority of Han's work was produced by a team of ghostwriters.