A map of the universe, used as an illustration in Zheng's book.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Riding the trend

Science popularization titles have been listed for the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award since 2005 and science books have seen a surge in the children's book market, according to statistics from OpenBook, a leading provider of data and information services for the book industry.

About 20 percent of bookstores' revenue comes from science books sold online, while 15 percent comes from titles sold in regular stores.

In another interview with a popular writer, Zheng Yongchun, planetary scientist and a professor of the National Astronomical Observatories at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zheng tells that there remains a consistent demand for science books in China.

"The trend shows that readers are increasingly interested in cutting-edge science and new scientific achievements, compared to the traditional knowledge-sharing books on geography, or flora and fauna," Zheng points out.

He says that back in the 1980s, there was a surge of high quality science works, followed by an overwhelming number of translated works.

"With cutting-edge science like quantum, black hole, gravitational wave, cosmology, lunar and the Mars probe, Chinese scientists and science writers are telling their own story," Zheng says.

And for the books to sell well, CS-Booky's editor Dong claims, they should be beautifully written, easy to follow and with tangible content, be it translated or original. Dong says that Li's work, and Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Italian Carlo Rovelli, are good examples.

"These books made what was the little known, a mass phenomenon. We need more such authors like Li," she says.