A photo of Guo Jingming that he has posted on his blog. [Photo: blog.sina.com.cn/guojingming]

Who's the most successful writer in China today? A recent feature story in the New York Times says it's young writer Guo Jingming, whom some Chinese readers claim is overestimated.

In "China's Pop Fiction," published Sunday, Aventurina King wrote that 24-year-old Guo is a pop idol whose "cross-dressing, image-obsessed persona has made him a sensation" in China, a phenomenon shown in the popularity of his self-portrait rich blog and his jam-packed signing sessions.

Yet an ongoing survey on Sohu.com, a popular Chinese Web portal, shows that over 80 percent of the respondents so far agree that Guo doesn't live up to the "most successful writer" honor.

While the New York Times article seems to mean that Guo Jingming is the most successful writer commercial-wise, many of the Sohu responders think the young writer is not fully developed in literature and his showy persona is by Chinese standard not acceptable.

The remaining 20-percent argue that being commercially successful weighs in the modern society and Guo is successful with his best-selling books.

Guo Jingming earned more than any other Chinese writers last year, according to the 2007 annual list of writer millionaires. He tops the list with 11 million yuan (US$1.48 million) in copyright royalties, beating Yu Qiuyu, a renowned scholar and the richest writer of 2006.

Guo told the Chongqing Evening News in a recent interview that he was yet to read the New York Times story, but that honor was invigorating. He thinks commercial writers are not bad and that a successful writer should be someone whose books are favored by readers.

(CRI May 5,2008)