Fall from grace

Novelist Zhou Daxin's latest offering is about an imaginary Chinese official whose death triggers both tears and joy. Xing Yi reports.

Acclaimed novelist Zhou Daxin recently released a new book depicting the life of an imaginary provincial governor, saying that the graft case against Gu Junshan, a disgraced Chinese general, had pushed him to write the novel.

Gu, a former deputy director of the general logistics department of the People's Liberation Army, was prosecuted for embezzlement, bribery, misuse of government funds and abuse of power in March last year. He is alleged to have amassed more than 600 million yuan ($98 million) in wealth, according to investigators.