A Net Result
Maturing Chinese Web literature moves from fantasy to reality
Web writer Zhang Wei, known as Tang Jia San Shao, used to primarily write fantasy novels before he began contributing to Web literature in 2004. In February, his contemporary urban romance Embracing You Beyond Lies made it to the List of Excellent Original Web Literary Works published by the State Administration of Press and Publication and the China Writers Association (CWA).
The list, which started in 2015, aims to promote healthy development of the Web literature industry by selecting outstanding works for other writers to follow.
“I hope to shoulder more social responsibilities,” said Zhang, who has turned to realism in recent years.
Dose of realism
China’s Web literature has developed leaps and bounds over the past 20 years, He Hong, Director of CWA’S Web Literature Center, said in a recent interview.
In the preliminary stage of development, the genre focused on fantasy and wuxia, the tales of warrior heroes with superhuman capabilities. There were also historical novels, especially love stories with time travel.
“Realistic works have been the weakest links of Web literature. Web writers need to face up to how to reflect reality,” He added.
However, the number of realistic Web novels was on the rise in 2018. Of the 530 submissions from 15 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, many addressed contemporary societal issues such as entrepreneurship, community management and poverty alleviation.
Chen Qirong, head of the judges’ panel and Director of the CWA’S Web Literature Committee, said Web literature has been moving closer to mainstream ideology, cultural traditions and aesthetics. “Works describing the history of reform and opening up have increased and some are set in contemporary society,” Chen said.
There are around 680,000 contracted authors for key websites and another 14 million who write online irregularly. There are over 16 million Web literary works with 406 million readers.
Chinese Web literature is regarded as one of the four cultural phenomena worldwide, along with Hollywood movies, Japanese anime and South Korean TV dramas.
To Zhang, the emergence and presence of Web literature is a milestone in the history of Chinese literature. There has never been so many writers engaged in literary creations at the same time in any country or at any time in history.
Given the vast amount of Web novels, even if only 1 percent is of high quality, it will still be a remarkable feat, Zhang told the media.
He Hong believed this genre will dominate literature in the future. “When people wrote on turtle shell or ox bones thousands of years ago, long literary works were inconceivable,” he said. “It was only when printing technologies matured that long novels began to thrive. For the same reason, the emergence of the Internet, a revolutionary way of communication, is bound to bring fundamental changes to literature. I think Web literature will become the dominant form of literature in future.”
However, he added that Web novels have to deal with real issues to have a bigger social impact.
“Web novelists need to pay more attention to reality, and learn about ordinary people’s lives and aspirations to tell China’s stories and play a positive role in fostering social morality,” He said.
Zhang’s autobiographical novel My Story for You, which portrays his pre-fame struggles, reflects the huge social transformation taking