Chinese author addresses cultural differences

Ancient Chinese texts heading for digital frontier

"The explicitness is unique to him. No one in his category writes like that even in Japan. He avoids nothing," says Zhu.

But the part where Watanabe directs each pair to die and calls it "perfection of love", though shocking to Chinese readers, was not his own invention.

"He might be the first one to introduce to the Chinese the traditional Japanese concept of 'Mono no aware' (a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence and loneliness)," Zhu says.

"It's in the same vein that the Japanese appreciate fragile fallen sakura (a delicate flower that easily falls from the tree) and their traditions of sensuality."

"Japan is only just across the water, but we are unlike each other," she adds.

"We Chinese aren't used to such kind of love. In all our classics, we don't have our heroes express love this way," Shen says.

"The Japanese view death as a glorious act and a worthy end to the pursuit of love, while we would normally favor living, however humble it is, over death."

Indeed, Watanabe, who visited China for the last time in 2010, told readers that the finale death scene was supposed to be "a sublimation and the best cure for all the problems in love and real life".

He said his works explore the same universal theme, the "quest for love".

Love, marriages and affairs have always proved magnetic to readers - wherever they are.

"We tried to secure the rights to Watanabe's books long ago," says Chen Liang, editor of Motie, the publisher that's adding six more books to the Watanabe series in 2014. "Just look at the subjects he deals with, you know they will be popular."