Once celebrated as the voice of China’s rebellious youth and the country’s most-read blogger, Han Han, who turns 34 on Friday, has shifted more of his energies in recent years into his career as a racecar driver, filmmaking and family life. Since 2013, he has rarely updated his blog, preferring short messages on his Weibo account, and often addressing personal issues rather than the scathing social and political criticism that made his early reputation. He writes movie scripts, song lyrics and, in 2014, he directed his first movie, the road trip comedy “The Continent.” He is working on two more films, adapted from his own novels.

His range of interests is evident in a new collection of his writings translated into English, “The Problem With Me: And Other Essays About Making Trouble in China Today.” The 40 essays, the first written when he was 18, delve into the prospects for democracy in China, censorship, bureaucratic inefficiency, the role of intellectuals in society and life as a father.

The book’s translators, Alice Xin Liu and Joel Martinsen, commented in a joint email: “Han Han has had an atypical life trajectory, but the general experiences he writes about are shared by huge numbers of fellow citizens. His observations on the past decade and a half offer insight into the environment shaping Chinese young people today (and China’s future leaders).”

In an interview, Han Han discussed his writings, the turns his life has taken and what people in the West fail to understand about China.