Wen | Fan Cheng
Recently, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature", which analyzes the development context and trend characteristics of online literature. The report cites data from the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China 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, accounting for 48.6% of the total number of netizens, and the number of readers reached the highest level in history.
More than 500 million online literature, which has been controversial since birth, officially announced to us with the help of the "power of the flood" of the Internet that its users have accounted for half of all netizens. Of course, this proportion is staggering, and a few years later, the common literary memory of the "new new human beings" may be these online literatures. This is no exaggeration, for this phenomenon, we must keep an open mind and face it calmly.
Our generation cannot understand the ancestors who read "Zhi Hu Ye", and it is also difficult to understand these post-95s and post-00s who grew up in the two-dimensional world. We can't always use our own yardstick of the times to measure everything they love and pursue. And, don't worry, they read online literature and abandon the classics. The reading level of contemporary children is not necessarily backward compared to that of their parents.
More notably, online literature is a kind of literature that grows spontaneously on the Internet. It is not an extension of the "classic", but the creation of countless individuals. The so-called literature of a generation, Tang poetry and Song poetry and yuanqu, what is the literature of our generation? At present, it may be this. Of course, in the information age, the media is no longer just paper and text, which is why, some people even say that Zhang Yimou, Jay Chou, etc. are the "Li Bai" and "Su Shi" of our time.
We have to believe that the eyes of time are shining. We must look at the current network literature with a historical perspective. The popular civic novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties are not all shining and enduring, such as "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Journey to the West"; but a considerable part of them have been eliminated in that era. Ultimately history will make the choice to let those real essences settle down.
Stills from the 1987 version of "Dream of the Red Chamber"
In fact, in recent years, many excellent well-known writers have also been born in the group of online writers, such as Mingyue, Xiao Ding, MaoTi and so on. Some works have been adapted into film and television works, and the quality and reputation are also very good, such as "Langya List", "Zhen Huan Biography", "Qing Yu Nian", "Will Night" and so on. Many of their contents, although fictional, also reflect reality.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, Chinese online literature has spread more than 10,000 works overseas. Some online IP films and televisions, such as "Son-in-law", "Douluo Continent", "Jinxin Like Jade", "Sword In the Snow", etc., have landed on mainstream foreign video websites. Those online literary works that were "despised" by many people at that time have become the first cultural output to go abroad. This "reversal" is worthy of our deep consideration and summary.
Not only cultural works, but also the process of receiving anything has a process from shallow to deep, from the surface to the inside. Many people may feel that these online literary works are not thick and profound enough, and lack a certain degree of ideological and intellectual nature. This continuous connotation generation, I am afraid that it still needs to be explored by online literature, depending on the continuous growth of the industry as a whole.
As Zhang Jian, director of the Literature Department of China Social Science Daily, believes, "Online literature is a mass culture, but also a consumer culture and entertainment culture, which is why it is colorful, vibrant and rich in possibilities." "What we're going to do is discover, exploit, develop that possibility."
Text: Fan Cheng
Image: Network
Column moderator: Zhang Yongqun
Editor-in-charge: Wang Yuanfang
Editor: Xing Yanyan Sun Dai