Source: China Youth Network
On April 7, 2022, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Online Literature" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which analyzes the development context and trend characteristics of online literature from five levels: content theme, content consumption, creation ecology, online text IP and online literature going abroad.
The report points out that while China's online literature is booming in 2021, it has shown a good sense of social value and cultural responsibility, and has also shown a new style and characteristics of inheriting the past and opening up the future, and has become a Chinese story created by the public and read by the whole people. Mass creation has promoted the turn of online literary themes, the rapid growth of science fiction and realistic themes, and the fantasy, immortals, history and other categories have gradually become a trend of parallel, and the diversified pattern of online literary content themes has been formed; online literature has become an important part of the reading of the whole people, and with its attractiveness to the Z generation, it continues to inject new vitality into it. At the same time, online literature has advanced in depth and overseas influence has continued to rise, becoming an important carrier for writing and disseminating Chinese stories.
The theme of online literature has shifted: the rise of realistic and science fiction themes, and the formation of a diversified content pattern
2021 is a special year, influenced by major social issues such as the centenary of the founding of the Party and the fight against the epidemic, and the accumulation of support from the call of the past countries and platforms, more and more front-line practitioners in the industry have poured into the creative team, recording the development of the industry and the style of the times with online texts, and writing about China's contemporary economic take-off and scientific and technological development, making online literature an important carrier for ordinary people to record Chinese stories.
The report said that mass creation has promoted the turn of online literary themes, the rapid rise of realistic themes and science fiction themes, traditional themes such as historical immortals have also shown the transformation of the spiritual core, and the diversified content pattern has taken shape. According to the data of Reading Group, the compound growth rate of realistic themes in the five years from 2016 to 2021 exceeded 30%, ranking second in the whole category and the category with the top 5 growth rate in 2021. The shift in realistic themes makes online literature combine the protagonist's career development with the changes of the times and national rejuvenation in terms of creative techniques, such as the online writer Mei Shiniang's work "The Rushing Era - To the South and North", which takes the establishment of the Hainan Special Economic Zone in 1998 as the background, records the history of the father's efforts in the Hainan Special Economic Zone, and focuses on the growth and struggle of the youth group after the reform and opening up. At the same time, science fiction has become one of the five major categories of online literature and an important path for the localization of science fiction. In the past five years, the number of authors who have created science fiction novels under the Reading Group alone has increased by 189% to 515,000 times, more than 22% of the top writers have created science fiction works, and many works of science fiction or science fiction related themes have landed in the top ten of the starting monthly ticket list.
The Chinese story must be based on tradition. The report points out that online literature originated from legendary scripts, Ming and Qing novels, and the genes of Chinese classical literature are rooted in it, and in 2021, the inheritance and development of traditional culture by online literature presents new characteristics: first, take the initiative to mobilize the treasure house of traditional culture and classical literary resources, and combine traditional culture with modern spirit; second, the protagonist's personal struggle is combined with the narrative of home country. With the rise of the younger generation under the rapid development of the narrative, the changes in the international situation and the improvement of national pride, the "chivalrous spirit" of online literature and the spiritual core wrapped in classical expression have also turned, and the personal struggle of the protagonist has once again been combined with the narrative of home and country. For example, the "Town Demon Museum" with "Shan Hai Jing" and "Search for God" as the story background; the new version of the group portrait of the famous female generals, evoking readers' attention to the fate of the home country, the work "The Eldest Daughter of the Concubine" is beautiful and sassy.
Online literature promotes the development of reading for all: Generation Z leads the new atmosphere
As an important part of contemporary Chinese literature, online literature is also an important content supply for all people to read. According to the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China, by the end of 2021, the total number of online literature users in the mainland reached 502 million, an increase of 41.45 million over the same period last year, accounting for 48.6% of the total number of Netizens, and the number of readers reached the highest level in history. Among them, Beijing is the city with the largest number of online literature users, and Shandong is a major province for online literature reading. The report proposes that with its unique charm, online literature continues to promote the development of reading for all, and continues to attract the influx of readers of Generation Z writers, injecting vitality and new force into reading for all. According to the data of Reading Group, in 2021, the number of new writers after 95 will account for more than 80%, and the number of new users after 95 in 2021 will account for more than 60% of the new users of Chinese.com.
At the same time, Generation Z has also profoundly influenced the content composition and value core of online literature. The online aesthetics of the Z generation are more diverse, and the city, fairy tales, and history love to watch, and science fiction and reality also love to watch. According to the data of Reading Group, science fiction readers account for 60% after 95, and generation Z of realistic theme readers account for more than 40%. Compared with 2020, the growth rate of the number of paying people in science fiction themes ranks first in the whole site. This has promoted the pattern of pluralism in online literature from the other side. Secondly, with the high-quality, mainstreaming and trend of online literature turning to explicit, reading online literature is no longer just a pastime after tea and dinner, but gradually becomes the entrance to the knowledge learning of Generation Z, and it is common to discuss "hardcore" science in the comment area. For example, in the book review area of Morningstar LL's "Black Technology System of Xueba", there are "wild class representatives" around the "weekly guess", "twin prime number conjecture", "corner valley conjecture" and other knowledge to sort out the main points, answer questions, and form a "popular science atmosphere group". According to the statistics of the reading APP of the starting point of the Reading Group, in 2021 alone, the keyword "knowledge" appeared 130,000 times in the book review area, "physics" appeared 70,000 times, "chemistry" appeared 16,000 times, and even "high number" appeared more than 5,000 times. In addition, because Gen Z grew up in a fast-growing China, national pride is even stronger. In 2021, the word "China" appeared more than 300,000 times in reader comments, and nearly one million times in the past three years.
Online Literature Goes Abroad: The Global Influence of Chinese Stories Continues to Rise
The report believes that in 2021, China's online literature will achieve a phased step forward: the global situation of all-round dissemination, large-scale in-depth promotion, and diversified development is taking shape, and the overseas mode has been upgraded from the content output of the work authorization to the output of the industrial model, and the general trend of "ecological going to sea" has emerged.
In recent years, Chinese online literature has disseminated more than 10,000 works overseas. Among them, more than 4,000 physical books have been authorized, more than 3,000 translated works have been online, and more than 100 million users have subscribed to and read APP on the website. By the end of 2021, about 2,100 translations of Chinese online literature have been launched online at the starting point, and about 370,000 original works have been cultivated overseas. During the epidemic, the number of overseas online writers increased by more than 3 times, of which the post-00s accounted for nearly 60%. Excellent works that are popular in China, such as "Lord of Mystery", "Heavenly Dao Library", "Wish You a Good Radiance", "Doctor Lingran", "Full-time Master", etc., have also had a great impact overseas.
In 2021, China's nettext IP going overseas has obviously shown an innovative trend. Comic works have come to sea. IP comics such as "Just Like Cold Light Meets The Sun" and "Let Go of that Witch" have entered the top of the popularity list in the Japanese and Korean markets. This year's IP dramas such as "Son-in-law", "Douluo Continent", "Jinxin Jade", "Snow Knife Line" and other IP dramas have landed on Mainstream video websites in Europe and the United States such as YouTube and Viki, and have an impact in hundreds of countries and regions around the world. The overseas adaptation of nettext IP has made a breakthrough. "Let You Shine Well" created by the reading writer 囧囧有妖 was adapted into the drama series "Provoke the Fire wife" in Vietnam, setting off a local drama boom. In 2021, the film and television remake rights of the TV series "Son-in-law" were sold to the Korean streaming media platform, and the IP film and television works not only stayed overseas for broadcasting, but also became the source of content for overseas dramas, which shows that the overseas influence of online literature has gradually risen.
Moreover, the full-link development of online text IP and the vitality of cross-era IP also highlight the tension of cross-cultural and cross-media dissemination of network literature. In 2021, after the online drama "Son-in-law" was launched, it became the fastest popularity drama in the history of iQiyi's platform to break 10,000, and the average daily reading of the original works that are still in serialization increased by nearly 17 times. The online movie "The Luck of the Son-in-law" took advantage of the IP popularity, and the number of pre-broadcast reservations exceeded 1.59 million, winning the record of the fastest reservation on the platform to break one million, and the final work broke through 26 million at the box office, ranking top 3 in the iQiyi Online Movie Annual List.
In addition to the above data, the report highlights the importance of copyright protection. Rampant piracy not only causes economic losses to original authors, regular websites and related industrial chains, but also seriously damages the author's creative enthusiasm, interferes with the development order of the industry, and adversely affects the sustainable development of online literature and the entire cultural industry. In 2020, the overall market size of China's online literature was 28.8 billion yuan, and the scale of piracy losses increased by 6.9% year-on-year in 2019 to 6.028 billion yuan, and the scale of piracy losses accounted for 21% of the total market size. During the popularity of "Son-in-law", the pirate platform was quickly launched, and the pirated links about the keyword "Son-in-law TXT" reached 4 million. The report believes that the supervision, crackdown and publicity of copyright protection of online literature should be further strengthened, and a normal state of top-down comprehensive management should be formed, and the chain of pirated interests should be cut off from the source of profit.
Liu Yuhong, secretary of the Party Committee of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "On the one hand, the level of concern for reality in online literature has reached an unprecedented height. On the other hand, the diversified pattern of online literary content themes has also been formed, under the impetus of the era environment and social development, the historical mission and cultural responsibility of Chinese online literature have changed, it can be said that until today, online literature with its current realistic themes, showing the future science fiction themes, combining traditional cultural elements and modern spirit of historical immortal themes and rising overseas influence, has become an important carrier of the public to create Chinese stories and an important part of the reading of the whole people. ”
![What new atmosphere has more than 500 million users brought to online text creation? The theme of science fiction has become one of the five major categories of online literature[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)