The year 2012 started uneventfully for the literature scene in China but ended with a bang. Mei Jia, Sun Ye and Han Bingbin review.

Just when the country's leading booksellers were complaining of the lack of super bestsellers in the year 2012, writer Mo Yan's Nobel Prize in literature win in October created sparks among readers, writers and publishers.

Sales of his works multiplied, both in print and e-publications.

"People suddenly realized our literature is not dying," says Lei Da, a veteran literary critic. "Excellent creations are there waiting to be rediscovered, just like we rediscovered Mo Yan's bold and endless imagination."

Lei says fictional works in China today also reflect the age of new media and changes in human relationships.

Current works contain more of writers' cultural awareness, shedding light on regional customs, traditions and history, the critic says.

Lei also notices that Chinese nonfiction writing covered a broader spectrum in 2012.

China Daily's reading team presents the top 10 books of 2012 based on sales, critical acclaim and Chinese media ranking. They are listed in alphabetic order.

Top 5 nonfictions

Coming into Focus

By Justin Yifu Lin, Citic Press

Justin Yifu Lin says China's advantages in cheap human and environmental resources have died out. The next few years will either see crucial institutional and governance development, or the country's decline.

Lin, whose term with the World Bank ended in 2012, has written Coming into Focus, which touches on the economic crisis with China's growth in mind. Its English version will be published by the Cambridge Press in 2013.

Ba Shusong, deputy director of the finance department of the State Council's Development Research Center, says the new analytical framework goes beyond the Keynesian school and harks back to Adam Smith.

Eight Schools of Thought in Modern China

By Ma Licheng, Social Sciences Academic Press

China doesn't have a unanimous ideology. It doesn't even have a polarized state of mind. Ma Licheng, a news commentator and author of Eight Schools of Thought in Modern China, says there are at least eight contending schools of thought that contribute to China's ongoing shift.

Besides providing introductions to the eight, Ma combed the last 30 years to examine how and why the leftists parted ways, and the reemergence of China's liberalism. Ma is alarmed by a surging wave of nationalism that may veer into populism.

Family Heirloom: The Living Wisdom of Chinese People

By Ren Xiang, New Star Press

Family Heirloom: The Living Wisdom of Chinese People is the result of Taiwan writer Ren Xiang's years of trying to vividly explain the essence of Chinese culture to her daughter, who's now studying in the United States.

The whole set of exquisitely designed books, which many say is a visual artwork itself, delves into the lives of Chinese people with texts and illustrations, portraying how they live over four seasons.

The book has both wowed and depressed Chinese readers as they find some of these beautiful traditions slowly diminishing.

Get Away, Mr Tumor

By Xiong Dun, Beijing Institute of Technology Press

The picture book was originally an online hit of a series of postings by young illustrator Xiong Dun, who has established her name through several picture books based on her personal life experiences.

Xiong was diagnosed with lymphoma in August 2011.

Since then, she underwent chemotherapy and created stories to record her fight against the illness.

Her stories have enlightened millions of people. Unfortunately, she died in November 2012 at the age of 30.

Governing China: How the CPC works

By Xie Chuntao, New World Press

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in November, was an event with profound influence. It stirred global interest in the Party and its achievements.

The book, unveiling the formation and development of the CPC's governing systems, is a follow-up to the bestselling book, Why and How the CPC Works in China, in both English and Chinese.

Both books revolve around frequently asked questions about the Party, offering an approachable read to its ideas and theories, which is believed to be an innovative way of introducing Party history, especially to readers outside China.

The English version will be released soon.

Top 5 fictions

Charming Flight

By Di An, Changjiang Literature and Arts Press

Di An, born in 1983, is the reason many Chinese teenagers are reading serious literature. Like her other works, this collection of short stories from her soaring career is critically acclaimed and poised to be another hit.

This anthology of the writer's 10-year career includes Parinirvana, which won the Biennial Awards for Chinese Novel, and Sisters' Forest, which is hailed by the literature magazine Harvest.

Dai Deng

By Jia Pingwa, People's Literature Publishing House

Jia Pingwa's latest work zooms in on the inner struggles of a gentle and idealistic college graduate, named Dai Deng, during her service at a township government office in the harsh and remote Qinling Mountains.

Dai's challenging duty is to settle disputes and maintain peace among villagers.

While dealing with the complications, Dai inextricably stands in the center of China's vast social reality, and her experiences cast light on the drastic changes the countryside has gone through.

Cheng Yongxin, chief editor of Harvest magazine, says that besides its social significance, the book with its lucid and lively language, shows Jia's efforts to shun his colloquial language that sometimes fails to appeal to a wider audience.

I'm Not Pan Jinlian

By Liu Zhenyun, Changjiang Literature and Arts Press

Maodun Literature Award winner Liu Zhenyun's latest novel is a story about life's absurdity.

Just to clear up one sentence with which her ex-husband slanders her, a rural woman fights with officials from village level right up to the country's top leaders. The process changes many people's lives and careers.

Liu says the hilarious story touches on the unwritten rules of the country's officialdom.

Mo Yan Omnibus

By Mo Yan, Writers Publishing House (Paperback), Yunnan People's Publishing House (Hardcover)

This complete collection of the Nobel laureate's works contains 11 novels, six novellas, one play and two collections of Mo Yan's speeches and interviews.

The writer's agency, Beijing Genuine and Profound Culture Development Co, has also launched an e-version on the Apple Store.

Among the books, Frog and Life and Death are Wearing Me Out are also selling well as single copies.

Frog tells the story about family planning policy in rural China. Life develops from the Buddhist saying about using the wheel of karma to tell 50 years of Chinese rural life. It pays tribute to folklore and folk tales.

Northern Girls: Life Goes On

By Sheng Keyi, Penguin

Born in the 1970s, Sheng Keyi is a strong female writer. Beijing Normal University literary critic Zhang Ning says her works are like a sharp scream from commercial society.

It is Sheng's first novel that has been translated into English and has received reviews in leading Western media. It tells the story of a frivolous rural girl's confrontation with the big cities from the 1990s to 2000s.

Contact the writers through meijia@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 01/08/2013 page19)