A Dream of Red Mansions, written by Cao Xueqin of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), features more than 400 characters and covers all of Chinese culture. [Photo/China Daily]

Ronald Gray, a linguistics professor at Ohio University, agrees, noting that in the last decade the novel has received increasing attention in the West.

Gray, who has written a soon-to-be-published biography of Cao Xueqin, Wandering Between Two Worlds: The Formative Years of Cao Xue-qin, 1715-1745, believes the novel is a great work for several reasons: "Its philosophical sophistication, encyclopedic scope, brilliant plot and the highly realistic way Cao described the novel's many characters."

Mark S. Ferrara, associate professor of English who teaches a translated version of the novel at State University of New York, says Cao's novel is a masterpiece of world literature and a great introduction to Chinese culture for his US students.

"It covers everything from Chinese medicine to art, poetry, architecture, food, clothing, social classes, gender roles, sexual mores, Manchu and Han customs, imperial rituals, and so much more," Ferrara says. "It mixes historical realism with allegory, biography with social critique, and playfully conflates fiction with truth."

Veteran Australian Sinologist Colin Mackerras says: "It is a superb description of what Chinese society among a certain class was like in those days. It is a wonderful 'novel of manners'."

Chinese culture critic Shi Hang says he's relieved to see One Thousand and One Nights also listed, proving that A Dream of Red Mansions isn't there as a token "because of its old age".

Brian Castro, chair of creative writing and director of J.M. Coetzee Center at The University of Adelaide, says: "It is a rather eclectic list. I presume this depended on the translations." An accomplished writer of Chinese origin himself, Castro says the ancient novel was chosen only "because it is so often used as an example".

Castro says he would certainly like to know more about contemporary Chinese writing.