BEIJING, March 4(Xinhuanet)-- About 82 percent of Chinese Internet users surveyed supported martial art fiction being included in high school textbooks, local media reported Friday.

The survey was conducted by one of China's largest Internet portal Sina.com and about 16,000 people had cast their vote by 4:00 p.m. Thursday, Beijing Daily Messenger reported.

The survey was conducted amid a nationwide debate on what type of books should be taught in high school, the controversy which began with the appearance of excerpts of two martial art fictions,"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and"Eightfold Path of the Heavenly Dragon" in high school textbooks.

Despite its literary value and popularity among the general public, martial arts reading had been excluded from high school textbooks because education authorities thought it lacked"educational functions" and a sense of seriousness.

Classic Chinese literature, stories of revolutionary heroes, and essays to inspire patriotism account for a large proportion oftextbook material in Chinese high schools.

Some middle-school and college teachers even thought such novels would have a negative effect on teenagers.

"They are for leisure reading, with plots containing fighting scenes and too much love," the Beijing News quoted a unnamed college professor saying in its earlier report.

"The selection process of martial art fiction is very careful. We held three discussions before making the decision," said a teacher surnamed Wang with the People's Education Press, which published the controversial textbook.

But she said the martial art articles were not mandatory readings before getting an approval from the Ministry of Education.

In 2001, someone with the ministry suggested putting martial art fiction in a middle-school textbook, but pressure from experienced teachers and senior education professors made him dropthe plan.

Liu Ximing, research fellow with the education science researchinstitute at Beijing's Renmin University of China, said that martial-arts fictions are stories of good triumphing over evil andconcern for the poor or the weak, both of which are themes that should be advocated.

"Judging from literary value, good martial art fictions definitely should be included in textbooks," said another supporter Zhang Yiwu, a literary critic."They are even better than some articles in current textbooks," he said.