China: Rich-list rankings blur the reality for many of China’s authors

Rankings create false impression many writers are being paid big royalties, but they’re distorted by celebrities’ earnings: Mandy Zuo in SCMP

Every year, a ranking of the best-paid authors on the mainland is seized upon by the media and other social observers as misleading and wrong-headed, even as they endlessly parse and compare the names and numbers.

But the Writers Rich List, compiled by the reporter Wu Huaiyao and published by West China City News, is useful as it focuses attention, if only briefly, on the state of Chinese literature in a society that increasingly devalues the profession.