Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Song Hao
On April 7, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Online Literature", 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 text going to sea.
The "Report" pointed out that in 2021, Chinese online literature shows a good sense of social value and cultural responsibility. Mass creation has promoted the transformation of online literary themes, and the rapid growth of science fiction and reality themes has gradually become a trend of parallel with categories such as fantasy, immortals, and history; online literature continues to inject new vitality into it with its attractiveness to the Z generation (post-95s and post-00s). At the same time, online literature has advanced in depth and overseas influence has continued to rise.
Theme shift: reality, the rise of science fiction themes
In 2021, more and more front-line practitioners in the industry will pour into the creative team to record the development of the industry and the style of the times with online texts. The "Report" pointed out 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 provided by Reading Group, among the platforms such as the starting point 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 also the category with the top 5 growth rate in 2021. Realistic theme works combine the protagonist's career development with the changes of the times and national rejuvenation, such as Mei Shiniang's work "The Rushing Age - To the South to the 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.
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, and more than 22% of the top writers have created science fiction works.
Promoting reading for all: Gen Z leads the way
In February this year, the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China released by the China Internet Network Information Center showed that 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, and the number of readers reached the highest level in history. From the perspective of provinces, Shandong is a major province for online literature reading, and the top five are Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and Zhejiang.
According to the data provided by Reading, the proportion of new writers after 95 in 2021 will account for more than 80%, and the starting point Chinese network will account for more than 60% of the new users in 2021.
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. Compared with 2020, the growth rate of the number of paying people in science fiction themes ranks first in the whole site.
Online Literature Goes Abroad: The Global Influence of Chinese Stories Continues to Rise
The report points out that in 2021, China's online literature will achieve a phased step forward, and the overseas mode will be upgraded from the content output of the work authorization to the output of the industrial model.
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. Excellent works that are popular in China, such as "Lord of Mystery", "Heavenly Dao Library", "May You Shine Well", "Doctor Lingran", "Full-time Master", etc., have 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. IP dramas such as "Son-in-law", "Douluo Continent", "Jinxin Like Jade", "Knife Line in the Snow" and other IP dramas have successively landed on YouTube, viki and other European and American video websites, and the film and television remake rights of the TV series "Son-in-law" have been sold to The Korean streaming media platform.
In addition to the above data, the report highlights the importance of copyright protection. Piracy 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% over 2019 to 6.028 billion yuan.
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. ”
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