Horror novels are now selling better than love stories in bookstores in Kunming, the capital of south China's Yunnan Province.

The Kungming Xinhua Bookstore says horror story fans have seen a dramatic growth in numbers since 2003, when Chinese writers got into ghouls and ghosts after seeing the great success in China of terrifying tales from South Korea like The Soul Guardians.

People between 16 to 27, mostly middle school students and office workers, account for the bulk of the new aficionados of fright.

While horror novels are still quite new in China, they have long been popular in Europe and the US.

(CRI.com November 10, 2004)