Top Chinese Web-writer's income tops 100 million

Zhang Wei, known as Tangjiasanshao by his fans, is among Forbes China Celebrity List in year 2014 and 2015. [File photo]

Zhang Wei, a 34-year-old former state media employee whose pen name is Tangjiasanshao, has made his way to the top of China's Web literature rankings, breaking nine years' records to become the first one to have earned an annual income of 110 million yuan ($16.8 million).

The book that earned him his fortune is Douluodalu, a fantasy novel about a genius's endeavor to become a soul master. It received over 60 million clicks on China's original literature site qidian.com.

Zhang said the book, which contains more than 20 million words, will be adapted into a four picture movie series by a Hollywood producer, and is expected to start shooting this November.

"It is by far my biggest IP, I hope it could be developed into a theme park, and become a world renowned piece," Zhang said.

Many of Zhang's works have sparked interest in the show business industry and several of them interested producers. But Zhang said he won't easily give authorization to them, as he hopes to take part in the adaptation of every one of them to make sure the finished products are the best possible.

Zhang is no exception in making a fortune out of film and drama adaptations. Popular show The Lost Tomb and The Journey of Flower, for example, have turned the novels they were adapted from into huge hits.

Among the top 15 novels that are on the list, 13 of them are fantasy novels, with the other two being campus literature and alternative history.

"Such novels pose a sharp contrast to our daily life, which satisfies the readers' craving for a life different from what they're leading," said Wu Huaiyao, initiator of the ranking list.

"The most popular fictions, whether it is Douluodalu, Harry Potter or Dragon, have one thing in common: the leading roles all harbor a super hero dream – it is everyone's dream to be strong, and the readers resonate with that," Wu said.

Ranking second and third in the list are 26-year-old Tiancantudou and 34-year-old Chendong, earning royalties of 46 million and 38 million yuan respectively.