Life and Leisure

A road to fortune paved with words

By Mei Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-26 07:59

The 2010 Top 25 Richest Chinese Writers list shows that serious works are losing out to popular books. Mei Jia reports

Writers should and can make a fortune through writing, says a lover of literature who has been devoting the past five years to finding out who are the country's richest wordsmiths. While the Forbes List on the world's richest people, and the "China Rich List", compiled by publisher Rupert Hoogewerf in his Hurun Report, have been putting the spotlight on entrepreneurs, the 2010 Top 25 Richest Chinese Writers, launched on Nov 15, focuses on how well Chinese writers do.

Wu Huaiyao, creator of the list, has been accused of confusing financial success with literary merit, but defends himself saying: "I use wealth (just) to show the current condition of Chinese writers."

In 2010, Wu says, writers, especially those of serious works, have had to grapple with the dual challenges of piracy in the Chinese market and competition from best-selling writers abroad.

Since 2006, Wu's list of the richest writers has been making quite a buzz, which is a perfect chance to draw national attention to writers, who seldom make it to the headlines these days.

The 2010 list is topped by children's book author Yang Hongying, with 25 million yuan ($3.76 million) in royalties. She is followed by best-selling writers of both fiction and non-fiction, including such big names like Wang Meng, Jia Pingwa and Louis Cha, as well as lesser-known ones.

For the first time, Wu has included a sub-list of the top 25 foreign writers who have raked in the most money in China over the past decade. Not surprisingly, some make more than their Chinese counterparts.

From the time he has been studying the book market nationwide, Wu says he has noticed that the most eye-catching spots in bookstores are invariably occupied by foreign works such as British author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and American writer Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books.

Wu says works by Chinese writers seldom go far in overseas markets.

"The list should act as a wake-up call," Wu says. "People don't realize how serious the problem is."

But he is also at pains to point out that the comparison is not meant to be threatening.

He explains that foreign writers' success in the Chinese market comes from the fact that these writers and publishers set their sights on the global market right from the inception of a book, and have mastered the art of marketing in new territory.

But this is not the case in the Chinese publishing industry.

Wu also includes analyses and interviews with successful writers and publishers with his list every year in the hope of sharing the secrets of success. "But they are often overlooked," he says.

He feels Chinese writers should help global readers know something about them before expecting them to read their works.

"If they know you, then they'll read you," he says, saying movie adaptations of novels make for effective international exposure.

Besides foreign writers, piracy, e-publishing, and the growing market for popular books are drawing more readers away from serious Chinese literature, Wu says.

Compared to previous years, both the numbers and rankings of serious writers on his list are falling.

Su Tong ranked fourth in the 2006 list, but is nowhere to be found on subsequent ones; Wang Meng has fallen from 12th position in 2006 to the 24th in 2010, while Jia Pingwa has gone from 14th to 25th.

"Although the money writers earn doesn't equal the value they create, it reveals market trends," says literary critic and culture expert Zhang Yiwu of Peking University.

Zhang has been following Wu's lists as a research source and says it reveals that the reading market is not only becoming more commercialized but also more fragmented, like in the West.

While the market for popular books, like children's books and teen fiction, is expanding, the share of serious literature is shrinking, Zhang says.

"The bulk of such serious literature comes from established writers born in the 1960s, especially those who have won the Mao Dun or Lu Xun prizes," he says, mentioning writers such as Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Wang Meng and Jia Pingwa, whose novels deal with modern China.

The steady output of such writers results in a loyal readership, he says.

Even so, Wu Huaiyao and critics such as Wang Xiaoshan think writers are not getting their due.

"The list shows that even the richest writer is earning far less than real estate developers. Good writers deserve more respect," Wang told the Life Style Weekly.

The earnings of the richest mainland real estate businessmen, the Wu Yajun couple with Longfor Properties, were $4.7 billion in 2010, or eighth on the Forbes List of the 400 Richest Chinese released on Oct 27. This makes Yang Hongying's 25 million yuan look like peanuts in comparison.

Wu believes that while the sweeping changes of the past few decades have brought out some very good writing, the best is yet to come.

"I've spent most of my time and money reading since my childhood in my small hometown in Hubei province," he says. "Now I read for at least three hours a day, and I've interviewed more than 100 writers. I know how good they are."

He believes these writers deserve better in life, and that is his motivation for compiling his annual lists.

His first list was triggered by news that established writer Hong Feng was begging on the streets of Shenyang, Liaoning province.

"People began saying that Chinese writers could not make enough even to feed themselves," he says. "I wanted to restore writers' reputations."

Wu says popular attitudes toward writers and their earnings have also been changing, with less fuss about his lists every year. The writers, many of whom shied away from talking about wealth openly, are more bold now.

Some writers even tell Wu the listed royalties on his lists are less than what they earn.

"Many commodities fade with time, but good literary works won't. The richest people in the country should be writers, not the ones who sell houses," Wu says.