A list of the wealthiest writers in China was released by a Beijing-based media outlet last December, making this group a hot topic again. Famous writer-scholar Yu Qiuyu, who currently hosts a cultural program called Travel of the Millennium on Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, tops all others with an estimated annual income of 14 million yuan.

Er Yue He, whose works have been frequently adapted to popular TV series in recent years, such as Emperor Yongzheng (the fifth emperor of the Qing Dynasty whose rein was in 1723-36), ranks second with a purported yearly income of 12 million yuan.

Han Han, 24, ranks third on the list. Another young writer, Guo Jingming, who was born in 1983, also finds himself among the top 10.

Other writers on the list include several who have been well known for decades, such as Zheng Yuanjie who became very famous in the 1980s for his fairy tales. Pipilu and Luxixi, the leading characters in Zheng's works, are familiar to younger readers, especially those in their 30s.

Some academic stars who became famous overnight through their TV appearances are also on the list, such as Yi Zhongtian, a professor at Xiamen University in southeast China's Fujian Province who discusses the classical Chinese literary work Romance of the Three Kingdoms on CCTV's popular program called Lecture Room. Sales of transcript of Yi's lecture have exceeded 1 million copies since it hit the market in August 2006.