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Wang Xiaofang was born in 1963 in Shenyang, northeast China, and was private secretary to Shenyang Deputy Mayor Ma Xiangdong from 1997-1999. Ma achieved infamy for gambling and losing millions in public money in Macau’s casinos, and was later sentenced to death for his crimes. Wang Xiaofang was found innocent of any involvement and in 1999 resigned from his life of politics: his first novel, Deadly Vortex (致命漩涡) was published by the Writers Publishing House in 2005 (the book was later retitled The Mayor's Secretary). He has published thirteen novels of political fiction in China, and his works regularly top the bestseller charts. The Civil Servant's Notebook is the first of his books to be published in English. (info from http://www.chinarhyming.com/2012/09/28/the-civil-servants-notebook-by-wang-xiaofang/)