bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

When Tianjin  trust company executive Zhang Muye decided to write the first of his fantasy novels a year ago, he never expected it to become a mainland internet hit.

But according to the country's biggest search engine, Baidu, Zhang's series about two grave robbers on the trail of buried treasure - Ghost Blows Out the Light - was the bestseller among mainland, Taiwanese and Hong Kong online novels last year.

Baidu said several million people read the novels online, in addition to the more than 500,000 print copies snapped up since late last year.

Ghost Blows Out the Light  has ridden a wave of interest in fantasy novels  on the mainland. Thousands of original novels in the genre have been published  on Chinese websites, in a market  estimated to be worth 300 million yuan a year - and growing.

Zhang's works took their name from an old Chinese saying among professional grave robbers: 'A human lights the candle and the ghosts blow it out.'

According to his description, when grave robbers enter a tomb they put a candle in the southeast corner  as  a kind of contract between the living and the dead. If the candle goes out by itself, the robbers have to leave without taking any treasure.

Zhang has written four books about grave robbing in Shaanxi , Yunnan , Xinjiang  and Tibet .  His protagonist, a retired soldier blessed with a rich understanding of geomancy and astronomy, teams up with a friend to seek treasures buried in ancient graves.

An unexpected event sees the pair working with a group of archaeologists to defeat monsters and unlock ancient secrets harboured in several underground mausoleums.

Millions of fans of the series call themselves dengsi or 'candlewicks' - a play on the series' title. Some readers have started hunting for the tools the book describes as being used by grave robbers, while others have put together maps plotting the main character's footsteps.

Zhang's editor, Xiang Zhuwei , says she shares the readers' enthusiasm for fantasy novels featuring Chinese history, customs, myths and local colour.

'I loved the story when I first came across it online and kept reading it for four hours. I didn't hesitate to pick up the phone to call the writer the next day to tell him why I thought it was a good idea to turn it into a print edition,' Ms Xiang said.

She said young people on the mainland were no strangers to western fantasy stories such as the Harry Potter series or The Lord of the Rings, but it was not until relatively recently that Chinese-themed fantasy novels took off on the internet, allowing Chinese writers to reconcile oriental culture with western entertainment.

Young Soldier Legend, an online novel by Xuan Yu , led the charge in 2004, the year Google announced that the book's title ranked third in the 10 top Chinese keyword searches for literature.

Soon after, the epic Zhu Xian by Xiao Ding  was published electronically and then in print form on the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, soaring to the top of the bestseller list.

A surge of online writing has followed and thousands of young people have posted their own stories  in an attempt to capitalise on the trend. Luo Li , from the Chinese novel website CMFU.com, says this is good news for the book market.

Mr Luo says the online content is fuelling enthusiasm among young netizens for reading the print edition of historical and fantasy novels.

'The majority of the readers of Chinese books are young people. But most print media writers are in their 30s and 40s, or even older,'  he said.

'The fiction market went through many tough years before because few young people wanted to pay for books. Online novels, especially fantasy novels, have become a really good channel for the young to release their enthusiasm and energy for reading and writing books.

'You can see how many people read and discuss these fantasy novels online. That reflects how big the market will be. I believe fiction will have huge space to grow in coming years.'

Buoyed by this potential, more businesspeople are coming up with other forms of fantasy-based content. An online game and a TV series based on the Zhu Xian story are in the works. And Hong Kong and Taiwanese investors are trying to take Ghost Blows Out the Light to the big screen.

But  Zhang  is still running his financial trust company, while writing online prequels and sequels in his spare time.

'I'm a businessman dealing with stocks by day and become an adventurer in an unpredictable and limitless world by night,' he said. 'I won't be a professional writer, but writing does make me enjoy this world more.

'I do thank the internet. All I have in reality now is from the virtual online world.'



Wave of fantasy novels invade the Net, inspiring a new generation of readers