Cyber dweller to bestseller

Anni Baobei, or Annie Baby, might have used the Internet as her springboard to success as a contemporary writer, however she's now turning her back on the online world. The 37-year-old author, whose real name is Li Jie, has come a long way since her days as a bank employee in Shanghai. She began posting short stories online in 1996 when she was 24 under the pen name Anni Baobei, but never imagined her cyberspace stardom would turn her into a best-selling author and the fifth richest Chinese writer.

Nicknamed "Flower in the Dark" by her readers due to her novels' morose themes of loneliness and isolation, Li's novels today rank among the most widely read in China. The author helped spearhead the cult of cyber writing in the country that has aroused new interest in reading despite defying literary conventions. More than a decade after she first start hammering out her novels at the keyboard, Li has finally agreed to have her early stories translated into English.

Out of the darkness

This week, she appeared as one of 21 authors invited to discuss Chinese contemporary literature at the 2012 London Book Fair. The Ningbo native just wants to travel the world and write. She might not admit it, but she's proof that China's new age of best-selling authors cut their teeth online.

Reserved and serene, Li is reluctant to talk to the media or even have her photograph taken. She is as enigmatic as her early cyber tales that featured urban characters aspiring to adapt to rapid change and strike a balance between modernity and tradition.

Her characters were tangled in a web of emotions, wrangling with desire, sex and death. "Back then, cyber writing seemed like a good way of expressing my emotions and thoughts. I wrote short fiction stories that drew on some aspects of reality. I never thought I'd become a writer," she told the Global Times.

Li's stint in Shanghai saw her work for a bank, advertising agency, Internet corporation and a publishing house. While her work during the day was mundane, at night she would trawl blogs, forums and chat rooms. Her stories first appeared online at the website rongshu xia, literally "under the banyan tree."

"Chat rooms were the best place to get close to strangers," she wrote in Goodbye, An, one of her short stories. "I was 24 and liked chatting with people online who had similar interests. It was a new experience."

One of those "new experiences" also involved a foray in online intimacy. "Yes, I fell in love online once," she candidly admitted. "All books reflect the character of their writers to a certain extent, but I'm not one of my characters. I no longer chat nor write online," she hastened to add.