Novelist may get time inside Chinese jail to write script for anti-graft TV drama

A Chinese writer could be granted rare access to the secretive Qincheng prison, to help him prepare a script for a television dramatisation of the anti-corruption campaign.

Lu Tianming, 72, who is renowned for his political novels featuring corruption in officialdom and state-owned enterprises, has been invited by the graft-busting agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, to create a serial based on the sweeping campaign launched by President Xi Jinping more than two years ago.

As part of the invitation, the writer was told he may be able to visit the notorious prison, which houses many of the senior officials caught by the campaign.

Lu said a visit to Qincheng would help him better understand the mentality and lives of the disgraced officials. It would also help him produce a more detailed picture of the prison, he said.

But Lu - whose previous, fictional, works have been made into acclaimed television dramas - stressed that visiting Qincheng was not the most important element in creating the anti-corruption serial. "I reckon the most crucial part is the scriptwriter's understanding of society and the front line of the anti-corruption [campaign]," he said.