Leaf through

The year 2012 started uneventfully for the literature scene in China but ended with a bang. Mei Jia, Sun Ye and Han Bingbin review.

Just when the country's leading booksellers were complaining of the lack of super bestsellers in the year 2012, writer Mo Yan's Nobel Prize in literature win in October created sparks among readers, writers and publishers.

Sales of his works multiplied, both in print and e-publications.

"People suddenly realized our literature is not dying," says Lei Da, a veteran literary critic. "Excellent creations are there waiting to be rediscovered, just like we rediscovered Mo Yan's bold and endless imagination."

Lei says fictional works in China today also reflect the age of new media and changes in human relationships.

Current works contain more of writers' cultural awareness, shedding light on regional customs, traditions and history, the critic says.

Lei also notices that Chinese nonfiction writing covered a broader spectrum in 2012.

China Daily's reading team presents the top 10 books of 2012 based on sales, critical acclaim and Chinese media ranking. They are listed in alphabetic order.

Top 5 nonfictions

Coming into Focus

By Justin Yifu Lin, Citic Press

Justin Yifu Lin says China's advantages in cheap human and environmental resources have died out. The next few years will either see crucial institutional and governance development, or the country's decline.

Lin, whose term with the World Bank ended in 2012, has written Coming into Focus, which touches on the economic crisis with China's growth in mind. Its English version will be published by the Cambridge Press in 2013.

Ba Shusong, deputy director of the finance department of the State Council's Development Research Center, says the new analytical framework goes beyond the Keynesian school and harks back to Adam Smith.

Chinese long painting exhibition held at Zhejiang Art Museum	6th Night of the Libraries event held in Buenos Aires