Remembering a golden age of letters

There was a time when a novel easily sold a million copies, short-story writers were megastars and penning a screenplay felt like a step down.

Sadly, that golden era for literature, the 1980s in China, has long gone.

"It was the best of times when literature assumed the most important role of all," Ge Fei, renowned writer and professor with the Department of Chinese at Tsinghua University, said at the launch of his latest book Encounter in Beijing.