David Mitchell's first encounter with a Chinese writer during his visit to China in August was with Xu Zechen, the author of Running through Zhongguancun, in a café crowded with fans and readers in Beijing. Mitchell and Xu have read each other's works.

Xu said he prepared lots of questions to "bombard" the writer of Cloud Atlas. Xu sees in Mitchell a change of literary trends in the West and thick cross-cultural traces.