After working as an engineer in a state-owned thermal power plant for five years, he quit his job in 1994 to become a freelance writer.
His first published short story, I Love Dollars, was denounced by some critics as the "shameless and indecent novel of a hooligan.
The responses were sarcastic and mostly expressed discontent, and later spawned publications that nurtured more independence among writers.
[2] In an introduction to Zhu Wen's short stories, translator Julia Lovell characterized his 'trademark narrative style' as "a loosely punctuated, first-person voice in which speech, both direct and indirect, run on within sentences of descriptive prose, designed to capture the unceremonious, free-flowing rhythms of action and dialogue in contemporary China.
A selection of his short stories were translated by Julia Lovell and published by Columbia University Press in January 2007.