The "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Online Literature" shows that mass creation has promoted the transformation of online literary themes, and a diversified pattern of online literary content themes has been formed. 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, and in recent years, Chinese online literature has disseminated more than 10,000 works overseas.
Reporter | Ho An Ann
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 ip and online literature going abroad.
The report shows 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 pattern of online literary content themes has been formed. 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. 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.
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 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.
The "Z generation" after 95 has become the main reading body of online literature
It is understood that the "2021 China Online Literature Development Research Report" is based on industry data including platforms such as Reading Group. At the previous seminar on the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature" jointly sponsored by the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Reading Group, Chen Dingjia, the leader of the research group, introduced that the "2021 China Internet Literature Development Research Report" is divided into five parts, respectively, from the realization of online literature to the theme of shift, online literature to promote reading for the whole people, protection and activation of the creation ecology, online literature IP full-link development, The comprehensive analysis of the online literature going to sea and other angles sorted out the overall change trend of the online literature industry and its upstream and downstream in 2021, and comprehensively and meticulously showed the overall development of the industry.
Generation Z readers lead the new atmosphere of online literature. (Screenshot of the 2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature)
For this report, Chen Dingjia believes that the basic concepts and ideas of the report can be summarized by three key words, that is, mass creation, reading by all and Chinese stories. First, mass creation has promoted the realistic turn of online literature, the rapid rise of science fiction themes, the diversified content pattern has taken shape, and online literature has become an important carrier for ordinary people to record contemporary China, such as "The Running Age - South to North". Another feature of the theme shift is the annual hit of science fiction network articles, such as "The Naming of the Night" broke many records, and "We Live in Nanjing" won the Galaxy Award.
Second, the "Z generation" after 95 has become the main reading body of online literature, as of the end of December 2021, the total number of users of mainland online literature reached 502 million, the number of readers reached the highest level in history, just in terms of the number of new users in the starting app, the post-95 accounted for more than 60%. Third, copyright protection has activated the creative ecology and become the focus of the online literature industry. Fourth, the IP adaptation developed by the network text has yielded fruitful results, which can effectively improve the high-quality rate of IP adaptation and launch more high-quality works, such as the "Human World" adapted by the network literature, setting a new high for CCTV's set of golden ratings in the past 8 years. Fifth, the prospects for online articles to go to sea are broad, and the influence of Chinese stories continues to rise. Secondly, the international development model of Chinese online literature is upgrading from the authorized content output of works to the mode output of the industry, realizing the cross-border domain transformation of online text creation and production.
Stills from the TV series "The World of Man" (2022).
Why focus on the development of the online literature industry and the study of online literature? Jiang Qiping, director of the Informatization Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this is of great significance: First, online literature uses symbols as content to express content to highlight the value of meaning. From this point of view, the study of network literature explores the law of meaning and value for the construction of digital civilization, which is of great significance for people-oriented development; second, the development of network literature and the study of network literature provide a reference for advanced lifestyles for high-quality development. As pointed out in the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature", the production mechanism of online literature has been further optimized, and the relationship between the rise of the "Z generation" and high-quality development has been proposed. Online literature has become an industry from the past individual behavior; third, the development of online literature and the study of internet culture have explored the Chinese path for the development of digital culture.
Zhang Jian, director of the Department of Culture and Philosophy of the China Social Sciences Magazine, was a former Internet practitioner, and he noticed that in the past two decades, the Internet has given birth to online literature, and online literature, as a source of content, has a far-reaching impact on film and television, games, animation, cultural creation, and cultural tourism. Zhang Jian believes that while maintaining the vitality of narrative, online literature has gradually moved closer to mainstream culture, mainstream ideology, and mainstream aesthetics, and the trend of realism has begun to set off, and all aspects of public life such as poverty alleviation, anti-epidemic, industrial production, and service industry have entered online literature. He believes that the fundamental reason for these changes is that online literature is a mass culture, but also a consumer culture and entertainment culture.
A total of more than 10,000 works of Chinese online literature have been disseminated overseas
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%. Popular works in China, such as "The Lord of Mystery", "Heavenly Dao Library", "Xu You Wanzhang Radiance Well", "Doctor Lingran", "Full-time Master", etc., have also had great influence overseas.
At the same time, in 2021, China's net text 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 online text IP has made a breakthrough, and IP film and television works not only stay overseas for broadcasting, but also become the source of content for overseas dramas. For example, in 2021, the film and television remake rights of the TV series "Son-in-law" were sold to a Korean streaming media platform.
Stills from the TV series "Like a Jade Heart" (2021).
Online literature promotes the development of reading for all
In the view of Ouyang Youquan, a professor and famous scholar at the College of Literature of Central South University, online literature and reading for the whole people have a very direct relationship, which is embodied in three points: First, online literature provides the richest reading resources for the whole people to read; second, online literature allows the public to gradually develop the habit of loving reading, especially in the era of fragmentation, online literature is indispensable in this regard; third, online literature should provide adolescents with suitable and excellent reading products, healthy content, wonderful stories, ideological, Artistry and readability are unified.
"We Live in Nanjing" by Tianrui Shufu.
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 strength into reading for all.
In addition, the report noted in particular 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.
So, what is the nature of copyright protection in the development of online literature? Xu Miaomiao took "What This Chapter Says" as an example, pointing out that copyright protection of online literature also helps to improve the quality of the work itself. Due to the interests involved, piracy technology is also constantly improving, from the earlier "hand-playing" photography, to pirate websites, and now there are more means, between genuine and pirated is a process of technical competition, there is no lasting advantage. From this point of view, Xu Miaomiao believes that in the future, it may be possible to add new achievements on copyright protection made by some websites in the technical aspect of copyright protection, so that different links can participate in copyright protection.