Man fascinated by Chinese classic literature

A man in Hunan province who is fascinated by the Chinese Classic the Stone Story has continued to study literature since he graduated from college in 2002 instead of getting a job.

A friend gave Tang Guoming a copy of the Stone Story when he was 14.

"The campus I live on is just like a little Grand View Garden (a grand stage for the main characters in the Stone Story). The combination of Hunan University and Hunan Normal University with Yuelu Montain and Yuelu Academy is more like the Jia Mansion," Tang wrote on his Sina micro blog.

Tang, 40, lives in a rented room on the southern slope of Yuelu Mountain. He rarely leaves the room and devotes all of his time and energy into writing additional chapters of Stone Story.

After reading the Stone Story for over 10 times, Tang said he believed that Cao Xueqin, the original author of Stone Story, intended to write the story to 100 chapters.

In June, his work was published on Fuyun in Hangzhou, and he became a sensation on Internet.

Tang says a journal in the United States is even serializing his work. Tang has also received some criticism from readers. Some readers think the words Tang uses are too modern. Some said that the artistic beauty of Tang's work is rather inferior compared with the original work.

Tang's parents worry that he won't find a wife, but he isn't. "I will keep looking for my dream girl who is like Jia Tanchun in the Stone Story and can understand me," Tang said.