Smog inspires environmental official to write novel

In an effort to battle smog on two fronts, Li Chunyuan splits his life between two worlds -- the real and the virtual.

The 52-year-old deputy head of Environmental Protection Bureau of Langfang City in China's smog-blanketed Hebei Province, spends each day racking his brain to come up with solutions to the city's emissions.

In his recently published book "Smog Is Coming", he touches on bureaucracy, its impact on air pollution, environmental officials' dilemma and basic knowledge about smog through different stories.

With northern China shrouded in winter smog again, the novel, containing roughly 240,000 words, has gone viral. After it was published last June, his book sold 9,000 copies, with another 7,000 distributed to the public for free.

SMOG INSPIRES NOVEL

Langfang, stuck between Beijing and Tianjin, is among China's ten worst-hit cities by smog. It has been under tremendous pressure to cut emissions.

Li is among those who are most susceptible to smog, not only because he suffers from allergic rhinitis, but also owing to his role as a local environmental official.

Every morning, the first thing he does is open his curtains to see the color of the sky, using his cellphone to the check air quality data.

Writing is his hobby. He said it is easier to tell people something about environmental protection through literature than through boring lectures.

Starting in 2013, he spent a little more than three months writing his book. Most episodes were taken from real life including "media reports and examples given by other environmental officials," he said.

For instance, in one story, he depicts a masked burglar breaking into people's houses at night under cover of smog.

The story was based on his own experience. A radioactive device was stolen from a factory, but investigators could not see how the perpetrator did it because smog clouded the security camera.

"Some stories in the novel are a little bit dramatic, but if we lose the battle with smog, they will come true," Li said.

DILEMMA OF ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICIALS

Li, who began working in the environmental bureau in 2008, knows best the dilemma of environmental officials, especially in the notoriously-polluted Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

In another chapter of his novel, the hero, Lyu Zhengtian, head of environmental protection bureau of E County, quarrelled with the county chief because the latter wanted to use pollution funds to build a new government building.

"Look at the smog! How can we pursue political achievements at the cost of people's health," Lyu said.

In the end, Lyu became a figurehead, leaving the disappointing county behind.

Li Chunyuan said Lyu's experience is a true portrayal of some environmental officials.

The campaign against smog needs enormous funds and manpower, both of which are in short supply and have affected environmental officials' work.

In addition, they are often blamed for poor supervision once any pollution scandal is exposed, or for inaction by the public.

"Some officials would rather be demoted to other departments than be promoted in the environmental protection bureau," Li said.

They believe being the head of the bureau is the end of their political career.

He is going to write another novel once he has gathered enough material from his work, Li said, contemplating the title "The Conundrum of Smog".

But the current conundrum for Li is that many people now shy away from speaking to him for fear they become characters in the next novel.

"My writing will not stop. I want people to know when river and air become toxic, our world will end and dream will become fantasy," he said.