Chinese writer Jiang Rong has captured the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize for the novel Wolf Totem.

The judging panel, headed by former Canadian governor general Adrienne Clarkson, hailed the book as a "masterly work [that] is also a passionate argument about the complex interrelationship between nomads and settlers, animals and human beings, nature and culture."

The novel centres on life in Mongolia's countryside during the Chinese Cultural revolution.

The panel praised its "vivid detail" and "powerful cumulative effect."

The prize winner, who is also awarded $10,000 US, was announced at a gala dinner in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Jiang was unable to travel to Hong Kong from his home in Beijing due to ill health, according to the organizers. The author sent a statement saying he hoped the prize would inspire Asian writers.

"I spent 30 years thinking, and six years writing Wolf Totem, and my only hope was to produce an appealing story," Jiang said in his note.

The prize was accepted on his behalf by the publisher of his original Chinese novel, Bo Lin, and Jo Lusby of Penguin China, who will publish the English version in 2008.

Wolf Totem triumphed over four other books on the short list:

• Soledad's Sister by Jose Dalisay Jr.
• Families at Home by Reeti Gadekar.
• Smile As They Bow by Nu Nu Yi Inwa.
• Habit of a Foreign Sky by Xu Xi.

Jiang was born in Jiangsu, southern China, in 1946, and graduated from China Art College in 1966. A year later, Jiang, along with many intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, ended up living with nomadic communities on the Chinese border of Inner and Outer Mongolia for 11 years.

He returned to Beijing in 1978 and embarked on postgraduate studies in political science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and assumed an academic position at a Beijing university. Jiang is now retired.

The Man Asian Literary Prize, popularly known as the "Asian Booker," was created by Man Group plc, which sponsors the prestigious Booker Prize for published authors from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of former British colonies.

The prize received more than 240 submissions from established and first-time authors from across Asia.