Tong Hua 桐華

 Royalty Income: 2.9 million yuan (US$ 0.46 million)

Best seller: "Startling by Each Step"

Buy it on Amazon.cn, Chinese Edition

Born in 1982, Tong Hua, writing under the penname Zhang Xiaosan, is a best-selling Chinese contemporary romance novelist, and is known as one of the "Four Young Queens of Chinese romance fiction". Tong, who graduated from China's prestigious Peking University, moved to California, U.S. to take a master's degree in finance and economics in 2005. She is currently living in New York.

Tong has written a number of best-selling novels, including "Startling by Each Step", "The Ballad for Desert", "The Song in the Clouds", "Secrets Hidden by Time", "The Time Never Back" and "Used to Promise". The characters in Tong's stories typically pursue independence in their careers and equality in love and relationships. The writer is most celebrated for her time-travel novel, "Startling by Each Step", which has been adapted into a TV series of the same name. The series has proved hugely popular and also introduced several new stars to the Chinese public.

Book Description of "Startling by Each Step":

The story focuses on a white-collar worker, Zhang Xiaowen, who accidentally travels back in time to the early Qing Dynasty when she fell while changing a light bulb. There, as a Manchurian princess, she becomes caught up in a power struggle among a number of competing sons of theEmperor Kangxi. Knowing how history played out, Zhang tries to change outcomes for the better but ultimately fails.  (From wiki.china.org.cn)