The richest writer of 2014, Zhang Jiajia. [Photo by Mei Jia/China Daily]

More money, more controversies

The Rich List has been constantly controversial for connecting money with writing. Most of the writers named in previous lists would shun responding to the figures of their income.

But to Wu and the team, public focus is what they crave because "the major purpose when I started in 2006 was to call for more attention on writers, who deserve more respect."

The list's team even organizes an Oscar-like, red carpet entrance for writers to accept the honor before the ceremony in Chengdu on Dec 20.

Nine years after the first list, Wu said some of the writers began to offer their tax receipts to them., "They don't avoid talking about money anymore," he said.

Wu suggested that people should not judge a writer’s value by income. Sixty-two-year-old playwright Kang Liwen appeared at the ceremony to call for more support from the public for original Chinese scripts.

However, critics and observers say the list this year shows publishing in the country is experiencing too strong a link with investment operations.

Film company HS Media announced during the ceremony on Dec 20 that it will invest 5 billion yuan in 5 years to bring online literature writers' fantasy stories to the big screen, including the works by Tangjia Sanshao and Jiang Nan.

Wang Chen from HS Media said that its films will have a Hollywood team working on the visual effects and the movies will be launched globally.

"We believe online Chinese writers' works have that appeal to help them shed some influence onto the international market," Wang said.