Why does Chinese Internet literature attract Western "Generation Z" readers?
As an emerging force for Chinese culture to go international, Chinese internet literature has attracted more foreign fans. The Report on the International Communication of Chinese Internet Literature released recently shows that Internet literature has become the largest source of intellectual property for Chinese cultural products going overseas. Many of them are popular among Western readers. Literary works have also become an essential window for the Western Generation Z diaspora to understand China.
Why has Chinese internet literature been "going overseas" for 20 years? Why has it become the largest source of intellectual property for Chinese cultural products? How have they attracted readers of the Western Generation Z? Hong He, director of the Network Literature Center of the Chinese Writers Association, recently accepted an exclusive interview with the China News Agency to elaborate on questions about Chinese internet literature.
Hong He, born in 1967, graduated from the Chinese Department of Nankai University in 1988. He is currently the deputy director and second-level researcher of the Internet Literature Center of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese Writers Association, and a director of the Chinese Literature and Art Critics Association. He has been engaged in literary criticism and literary theory research for a long time and has published nearly one million words of theoretical and commentary articles. He has authored the monographs Revolution of Survival, Literature, and Art in the Background of Networking, and a collections of essays called Explorer, Transcendence or Repetition, From Countryside to Diversity, as well as non-fiction literature such as Lifeline, etc. He has served as a judge for many critical literary awards, including the Lu Xun Literature Prize and Mao Dun Literature Prize.
Chinese internet literature has become the largest source of intellectual property for Chinese cultural products going overseas. In your opinion, what are the internal and external factors for the emergence of this phenomenon?
Internet literature is the epitome of China's Internet innovation and development and a vivid embodiment of the concept of global Internet sharing and blossoming. The creation, dissemination, and reading of internet literature are all developed based on the characteristics of the Internet. They are instant, efficient, low-cost, highly interactive, and have the natural advantage of being widely spread across borders. With the continuous expansion of China's international influence, people worldwide are increasingly willing to understand China and Chinese culture. The international communication of Chinese internet literature has a sufficient premise and a solid foundation.
Image: July 2020, the Chinese Internet Literature Town officially settled in Changsha, Hunan Province, and welcomed the first batch of more than 30 Internet writers, including Yaoye, Ding Mo, Mid-Autumn Moon, and Banana. Credit: China News, Yipeng Xiang
The development process of over 20 years of Chinese internet literature has formed the characteristics of focusing on storytelling, a bold and peculiar imagination, and a strong sense of engagement. It has established a developing ecology with rich types and diverse themes. With a large number of works, and with more than 150 million new works being created every day, different readers can always find works suitable for their own reading. This is an internal factor that enables Chinese internet literature to attract a huge amount of readers at home and abroad. At the same time, the rapid development of Chinese internet literature is mainly due to the demographic dividend. In recent years, the development model that relies on the substantial growth of readers to maintain revenue growth has encountered a bottleneck, and online literature companies have expanded overseas markets to find new readers. This is an external factor behind the growth of overseas dissemination of internet literature.
If counted since 2001, Chinese internet literature has been overseas for a full 20 years. During this period, what kind of process did Chinese internet literature develop?
Over the past 20 years, the overseas dissemination of Chinese internet literature has undergone a series of transformations from the traditional mode of printed book publishing to establishing a localized development ecological model overseas, forming a format of coordinated development and mutual promotion at home abroad. Wuxia world (Martial Arts World) was founded in December 2014, and Gravity Tales and Volarenovels were founded in 2015. Subsequently, the Palmyue iReader App, Webnovels, Chapters and TapReads were launched one after another. Thus, Chinese internet literature entered the stage of online translation and dissemination.
In April 2018, Webnovel opened to overseas creations, attracted overseas creators, and established a user-generated content (UGC) model. Currently, there are 115,000 overseas authors, 200,000 online works, and 73 million users. Chinese internet literature has formed a diversified international communication pattern from online to offline, from PC to mobile, from text reading to intellectual property development, from external translation to the establishment of a localized development ecological model overseas.
Image: September 2021, the "2021 China International Internet Literature Week" opened in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province. Focusing on the theme of "World Significance of Internet Literature", Internet literature writers, critics, representatives of Internet literature platforms all talked about Chinese Internet literature "going abroad". Credit: Chinese Writers Association
Which themes are the most popular overseas? Do readers in different regions also have different reading preferences?
Due to cultural differences, readers in different regions prefer different types of internet literature works. North American and European readers prefer fantasy and works that express traditional Chinese culture, such as Library of Heaven's Path, which reflects the traditional strands of Chinese culture such as Taoism, Wizards and Gods, derived from oriental myths and legends. The peculiarity of imagination and the uniqueness of culture are why these works attract European and American readers. Readers in Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea prefer urban romance works. Compared with Europe and the United States, these countries belong to the Asian cultural circle and are deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture. Works expressing traditional Chinese culture are more easily accepted by them.
Why is the younger generation more receptive to Chinese internet literature? What impact will this have on the future development of cyber articles?
The dissemination of internet literature in China initially focused on young readers and gradually expanded to other age groups. The overseas audience of internet literature also has this feature. The main reason is that young people are more receptive to new things, especially Generation Z, who grew up with the Internet and are more receptive to networked communication methods. The inclusive and shared characteristics of the Internet make the differences between cultures gradually dissipate, and the appreciation of young audiences globally is getting closer.
The increasing acceptance of Chinese internet literature by Western Generation Z readers plays a positive role in promoting the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. With the growth and increase in many overseas young audiences, the global influence of Chinese literature and Chinese culture is bound to increase and expand.
In addition to the fact that Internet communication is more suitable for young people, what do you think is the source of the strong attraction of Chinese Internet literature to Western Gen Z’s?
Chinese Internet literature is the literary expression of Chinese culture on the Internet. The attraction of Chinese Internet literature, on the one hand, stems from the network of expression, and more importantly, on the other hand, from the charm of Chinese culture. In other words, Chinese online literature has produced a strong attraction and influence because of its creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese culture.
The influence of culture is positively related to national strength. At a time when the willingness of countries around the world to understand Chinese culture is rising, Chinese internet literature presents Chinese culture in a form that everyone likes to hear, and shows the unique charm of Chinese culture with strong storytelling and rich and bold imagination, thus attracting a large number of readers. Chinese culture is inherently a very inclusive culture, advocating harmony and difference, which makes Chinese internet literature not exclude or reject, but actively integrate Western culture while expressing Chinese culture. It absorbs Western culture and integrates Eastern elements, and is loved by many Western readers.
Image: September 2018, the 2nd China "Internet Literature" Conference opened in Beijing. The "2017 China Internet Literature Development Report" released at the meeting pointed out that overseas readers are increasingly paying attention to Chinese internet literature works. By the end of 2017, more than 500 works had been translated into more than ten languages including English and Japanese. The online literature website has on average around 500,000 daily viewers and on average more than 5 million hits. Credit: China News, Yan Du
Is there internet literature in western countries? Is there integration and mutual learning with the Chinese internet literature format?
People actually have different understandings of internet literature. According to the narrower understanding, internet literature mainly refers to novels serialized and published on literary websites or mobile reading platforms. In China, tens of millions of people have registered on the online literature platform, and hundreds of millions of readers have read online literature works. Online literature has become the most common form of literary writing and reading in the Internet era, benefiting people from all over the world. Internet literature in this sense is created by China, and it is a Chinese solution that contributes to the development of world literature.
The Internet spread of literature in the West is very early, such as Amazon's e-books, which have been published for many years. However, e-books are the electronic version of created literary works. Literature under this model is no different from printed literature in terms of text. It is hard to say that it is a new literary style. The literature websites now appearing in the West are basically the model of transplanting Chinese internet literature, and many of them have established or participated in the establishment of Chinese literature websites.
How will Chinese internet literature develop in the future if it wants to maintain Western Gen Z readers for a long time?
For the future development of Chinese internet literature, the most important thing is to launch more high-quality masterpieces. On the one hand, we must tell stories about China well, especially stories about China or Chinese culture in the new era.
Image: September 2018, the 2nd China Online Literature Conference was held in Beijing. The theme of the conference was "Chinese Stories on the World Stage". Credit: China Online Literature Conference Committee
On the other hand, the expression of Chinese culture should further stimulate creativity, integrate modern concepts and modern consciousness to increase the recognition of readers around the world. The future development of Chinese internet literature can build a group of intellectual properties based on Chinese culture (so that these works have their own independence, certain connections, and a unified world view), making sure its influence can spread all over the world.
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