A year that spoke volumes

Big-name authors, political memoirs and literary takes on urban culture dominated China's publishing world in 2013. Sun Ye, Han Bingbin and Mei Jia report.

It's been a blockbuster year for the leading names of Chinese literature. But if one trend has made 2013 a milestone in the world of books, says veteran literary critic Meng Fanhua, it is a shift in Chinese literary writing away from the traditional focus on rural life.

"The collapse of rural civilization together with the construction of a new one centered on the urban culture is the basic feature of the society today," Meng says. "The variety of new releases proves the creative power of Chinese writers."