Highest-Paid Writer

Yang Hongying tops the newly released 2010 Chinese Writer's Rich List with an annual royalty income of 25 million yuan ($3.68 million). With more than 40 million copies of her books sold in the past 10 years, Yang, 48, is one of the most popular children's writers in China.

Yang has worked as a primary school teacher, children's book editor, mentor of a children's newspaper and executive editor of a children's magazine. She began her writing career at 19 when her students suggested she should write books since she had the talent.

Since its first book was released in mid-2003, Yang's best-selling Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao series, which tells stories of primary school student Ma Xiaotiao and his friends and family, has sold more than 16 million copies. New York-based HarperCollins Publishers bought the rights to publish the series in foreign languages in overseas markets in August 2007, after the French version of the series became available in France a year earlier.