'Di the Pretty'

Popular young writer Di An has the pedigree to represent her generation as she emphasizes the individual rather than the group, according to Yang Guang.

Guo Jingming and Han Han have long been considered as representatives of the post-1980 writers, who emerged from the New Concept Writing Competition, an annual event initiated by Shanghai-based Mengya magazine in 1998. But Guo says the best representative of his generation of writers is neither Han nor himself, but 29-year-old Di An.

"Both of us have been engaged in many other businesses and are not pure writers anymore," he explains.