As one of the important components of socialist literature and art, mainland online literature has maintained a rapid development trend in recent years, with the scale of users and the number of works continuing to grow, and the content ecology becoming increasingly prosperous. Among them, a large number of positive works that convey correct values and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture are also increasingly loved by the market and readers at home and abroad.
On April 7, the latest "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that in 2021, while china's online literature is booming, it shows a good sense of social value and cultural responsibility, and also presents a new style and characteristic 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.
On the one hand, mass creation promotes the turn of online literary themes, the number of science fiction and reality theme works grows rapidly, and categories such as fantasy and xianxia gradually go hand in hand, forming a diversified pattern of online literary content themes; on the other hand, online literature has become an important part of the reading of the whole people, online literature "going to sea" in depth, overseas influence continues to rise, becoming an important carrier for disseminating China's excellent traditional culture and writing Chinese stories.
Concerns about reality have reached new heights
2021 is a year of great significance, coinciding with the centenary of the founding of the PARTY, the mainland has achieved the first centenary goal, built a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and marched with vigor toward the second centenary goal of comprehensively building a socialist modern power. Inspired by a series of exciting major nodal events, more and more front-line industry practitioners have poured into the network literature creation team, recording the development style and changes of the times in various industries with online texts, and showing China's contemporary economic take-off and scientific and technological development.
The report shows that at present, online literature has become one of the important carriers for ordinary people to record Chinese stories. With the formation of the atmosphere of mass creation, it has also promoted the turn of online literary themes. In 2021, the creation of online literature reality themes and science fiction themes has risen rapidly, and traditional themes such as historical immortals have also undergone a transformation of the spiritual core, and the pattern of diversified content creation has taken shape. According to the data provided by Reading Group, from 2016 to 2021, the compound annual growth rate of realistic works exceeded 30%, ranking second in the whole category and the top five categories in terms of growth rate in 2021. At the same time, the creative methods of online literature have also changed to a certain extent, and the career development of the protagonists in realistic works has been more closely integrated with the changes of the times and national rejuvenation. For example, the "Galloping Era - South to North" created by online writer "Mei Shiniang" is set against the background of the establishment of the Hainan Special Economic Zone in 1988, recording the history of the father's efforts in the Hainan Special Economic Zone, focusing on the growth and struggle of the youth group after the reform and opening up.
"On the one hand, online literature's concern for reality has reached an unprecedented height. On the other hand, the diversified pattern of online literature content themes has also been formed, and under the impetus of the era environment and social development, the historical mission and cultural responsibility of Chinese online literature have changed. Liu Yuhong, secretary of the Party Committee of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that since its initial development more than 20 years ago, online literature has become an important carrier for the public to create Chinese stories and an important part of reading for the whole people with its realistic themes based on the current reality themes, showing the future science fiction themes, combining traditional cultural elements and modern spirit of historical immortal themes and rising overseas influence.
"Online literature plays an increasingly important and active role in the spiritual and cultural life of the whole society, not only becoming an important carrier for constructing and disseminating China's image, but also, with the further optimization of the production mechanism of online literature, the whole industry is showing a strong driving force for sustainable development." Ouyang Youquan, a professor at the School of Letters of Central South University, said in the analysis and interpretation of the report that in 2021, more than half of the new online works will be realistic works, involving more than 200 industries, which makes the subject matter of online literature more colorful, and also makes online literature more closely related to the times and people's life and spiritual world. "As we all know, realistic themes are to emphasize the real reflection of life, this feature is conducive to online literature in the creation of closer to the times, closer to life, more grounded, so that network literature can truly become an important part of contemporary socialist literature, from this level, the overall rise of realistic themes online literature is of great significance." Ouyang Youquan said.
The inheritance of excellent traditional culture shows new characteristics
In addition to fully embodying the development trend of online literature "telling Chinese stories and serving the people", as a grounded literary type, the spiritual core of online literature also has the inheritance and continuation of excellent traditional culture, and the genetic roots of Chinese classical literature are planted in it. Especially with the continuous development of the times and the continuous improvement of the level of online literature creation, the inheritance, continuation and innovation of online literature to China's excellent traditional culture no longer stay at the level of words and stories, and gradually penetrate into the spiritual core. In this regard, the report pointed out that in 2021, the inheritance and development of online literature on China's excellent traditional culture has shown some new characteristics, and in excellent online literary works, the humanistic spirit and values based on the internalization of traditional cultural knowledge have had more and more positive impacts on the majority of young readers.
First, online literary writers will more actively and consciously mobilize the treasure house of China's excellent traditional culture and classical literary resources, and combine Chinese traditional culture with modern spirit in writing. Taking the male frequency works as an example, "This Human Being Is Too Serious" of "Returning to the Truth" takes myths and legends such as "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" as the background of the story, and uses the humorous humor of online literature, "thought", modern language and storytelling methods to create a new interpretation of ancient legends; coincidentally, the starting point of the Chinese Network in 2021 ranked first in the suspense category monthly ticket list for 5 consecutive months, "Town Demon Museum", and also integrated the ancient myths and legends of the mainland such as "Search for God", "Shan Hai Jing", "Liaozhai Zhiyi" and so on. Tell the legendary story of Zhiwei in a modern urban context. At the same time, the embodiment of the traditional culture of the ancient romance network creation of the female frequency category, in addition to the inheritance of social style, historical background, poetry and rhetoric, and image symbols, the writing methods are also constantly innovating, and the author integrates more intangible cultural heritage such as acupuncture, tea ceremony, and porcelain making into the professional background of the protagonist, on the one hand, it is more rich and delicate in story creation, and on the other hand, it also popularizes more traditional cultural knowledge to readers. For example, "Squeaky" "Entering the House" weaves the traditional Chinese ceramic culture into the creation of novels, telling the story of Song Cumulus, the heroine born in the porcelain-making family, who reformed and innovated the porcelain-making technology from the aspects of manufacturing materials, temperature control, technical techniques, etc., and led the family out of the predicament; "Mo Sang" of "Idle Listening to falling flowers" introduced the ancient postal station on the mainland; "I Killed a Hundred Flowers After The Blossoms" created by "Jinhuang" integrates traditional Chinese cultural elements such as incense and tea ceremony...
"As one of the important literary forms at present, many online literary works with ancient times as the background are not only rooted in China's long-lasting excellent traditional culture, but also reflect the value propositions of young people today, which is the arrival of traditional culture across the long river of history today." Internet writer "A Thousand Birches Fall", said.
Second, the personal struggle of the protagonist described in online literary works is more closely integrated with the narrative of home and country. For example, the group portrait of the famous female general created by "A Thousand Birch Falls", "The Eldest Daughter of her is beautiful and sassy", has aroused the attention of young readers to the fate of the homeland, loved by the majority of readers, and also won the first place in the female frequency category of the 2021 Reading Annual Good Book List; "Shao Song" created by "Grenade Afraid of Water", the storyline and character shaping have always centered around the center of "family and country feelings" and "unified country", which deeply reflects the profound patriotic traditions and national feelings of the Chinese nation.
"With the rise of the younger generation under the narrative of the rise of great powers, 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 shifted, and the personal struggles of the protagonists have increasingly combined with the narrative of home and country." Reader "Breeze Blows Face" said. As a loyal fan of female frequency online texts, "Xiao Feng Breeze" has been reading online articles on the reading platform for more than ten years, and usually mostly watches ancient romance works. "What I like the most is not the so-called 'big heroine' who can be wen neng anbang wu neng dingguo, but the female character who has a skill, is not attached to anyone, and can realize the value of life by herself." For example, the works of great gods such as 'Idle Listening to Falling Flowers' and 'Xi Xing' are basically in this style. In her view, there are many embodiments of online literature in the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture, "in terms of women's frequency literature, there are works that express traditional Chinese garden construction, traditional Chinese medicine, embroidery, and there are also works that embody brick making, tea ceremony, calligraphy and painting, etc. The reason why such novels are attractive is that the author has made efforts to study many excellent traditional cultures in the mainland and present them dramatically in the novel, so that readers can have a deeper understanding of China's excellent traditional culture while reading novels." "Xiao Feng Breeze" believes that these cognitions not only help to subtly enhance the reader's cultural self-confidence and national pride, but also the positive and self-improvement spirit presented by the characters of the work can also affect the reader's regular outlook on life to a certain extent.
The integration of traditional cultural elements of online texts should be solidly examined
When online literature becomes an important carrier for inheriting and carrying forward China's excellent traditional culture, there are also higher requirements for the professional quality of online literature writers as "storytelling craftsmen", and online literature writers in addition to having basic literary skills and establishing a conscious awareness of cultural inheritance and innovation with cultural self-confidence, essentially need corresponding traditional cultural knowledge reserves as text flesh and content substrates.
"Online writers use the protagonists and storylines of their novels to illustrate some things in their hearts. Therefore, in order to better carry forward China's excellent traditional culture, the author first needs to fully understand these knowledge contents in order to integrate them into the creation of novels to tell readers. "A Thousand Birches" told reporters that before creating "The Eldest Daughter of the Concubine, She Is Beautiful and Sassy", she bought and read a large number of books on ancient Chinese etiquette, "What is needed for the emperor's enthronement ceremony, what is his uniform, what is the life scene of the ancient extended family... These need to be understood one by one. "A thousand birches" believes that the power of literature is very powerful, "it will indeed affect readers, and now online literary users are easily affected by the information transmitted by their works, which requires that our creations must be based on solid knowledge reserves and correct ideological output, which also makes our creators feel great responsibility and obligation." ”
The ancient writer "idle listening to the flowers" believes that the network is a tool for communication, literature is the carrier of inheritance, whether the two can be successfully combined, so as to achieve the value of online literary creation, the key lies in the writer's heart to have "culture", the pen will have a clean. "If the writer is unaware of the importance of traditional Chinese culture to his own creation, does not pay attention to learning and collecting relevant knowledge, and does not understand and is not familiar with Chinese culture, then his works will lose the 'soul' of Chinese culture." "Idle listening to falling flowers," he said.
"At present, the expression of traditional culture in some online works is still superficial. For example, some authors with insufficient pen strength write that the protagonist's calligraphy is good, they will only write 'calligraphy everyone looks at it and nods', but where is the real good, reading it feels that the author does not understand calligraphy; for example, the heroine's embroidery skills are good, the most described is 'lifelike', but why it can be vivid, there is no further elaboration in the work, and the cultural inheritance of this part is not really reflected. "Xiao Feng Breeze" believes that online literature is a very popular popular literature, and writers must not only have the awareness of promoting China's excellent traditional culture when creating, but also need to do a good job of relevant knowledge reserves, and cannot make the traditional cultural content involved in the work more delicate, true and elaborate, and it is difficult to attract readers' attention to its works and related traditional culture.
Chen Dingjia, a researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the biggest challenge facing online literature is to improve the problem, which requires both the majority of online literary writers to have the spirit of the times and the sense of mission, and also the writers to continuously improve their own artistic appreciation and aesthetic perception, so that online literary creation can always maintain the spirit of enterprising and innovative, neither can be lonely and self-congratulatory, to always respond to the concerns of readers, nor kitsch, can not be disorderly, to make good use of the Internet's communication advantages. In the process of communicating and promoting the interaction of ideological aesthetics, we will continuously improve the quality of online works and create more fine products.
(Image courtesy of the report publisher)
Editor-in-charge: Yang Xiaojun
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