As a teenager during the Cultural revolution he was labeled an ‘educated youth’ and sent to the countryside for re-education through labour.

[1] Employed at a local cultural center after 1977, he soon won recognition as an outspoken new literary talent.

His early stories attacked the ultra-leftist degradation of China during the Mao era; they tended toward a slightly modernist style.

Han's major work to date is A Dictionary of Maqiao, a novel published in 1996 and translated into English in 2003.

Han's other works include Moon Orchid (1985), Bababa (1985), Womanwomanwoman (1985), Deserted City (1989), and Intimations (2002).