Recently, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 China Internet Literature Development Research Report", which pointed out that mass creation has promoted the turn of online literature themes, and realistic themes are rapidly rising. In the past year, ordinary people from all walks of life have begun to join the creation of online literature, or record the changes in the industry, or depict the style of the times, and write Chinese stories from different angles. The reporter interviewed several authors for this purpose, and their creative stories are also the epitome of the turn of online literature themes.
Overseas students after 95 write about the galloping era of their parents
Last year, a film focusing on the growth of young people after the reform and opening up, "The Galloping Era - To the South and North" won the special prize of the Fifth Reality Theme Online Literature Essay Contest. The novel tells the story of the struggle of several small characters in the 1990s who fled from a small city in Zhejiang and went south to the north in order to survive and ideal. Born in 1998 and studying in Italy, the author Mei Shiniang leads readers back to the "galloping era" with delicate and calm brushstrokes and a capacity of 7.6 million words.
"I wrote this book because my great uncle passed away in 2019, when I was very sad and wanted to write a story that would resurrect him in the text." At first, Mei Shiniang only planned to write a simple story that was not long, but when she put the characters in the context of the reform and opening up era, she realized that this story was not simple. "It was a passionate and very turbulent era, and it was difficult for a person's story to reflect the complexity of that era, so the novel changed from a person to a group portrait, and it seems that only in this way can you express what you have in your heart relatively completely."
In 1988, the Hainan Special Economic Zone was established, attracting dream seekers and gold diggers from all over the country, including Mei Shiniang's father and uncle. "They were all 'sea breakers' back then, and I often listened to them tell about that experience since I was a child, and I have been to Hainan many times, and my understanding of them is like a puzzle, piece by piece. As I grew older, I gradually gained my own understanding of many ignorant things. ”
Sixty percent of the novel's material comes from real life, and many of them are the personal experiences of Meishi's parents who traveled to Hainan. "I would often discuss with my father, and he would make a lot of suggestions and help me revise, which is probably the reason why the book has not been written so far." For Master Mei, what impressed her most was the light in her father's eyes when they talked about the past era. "It was a time of passion, maybe not as refined as it is now, but that kind of 'recklessness' was full of life."
"That 'galloping era' is also the background color we have today." Through this novel, she hopes to convey to the reader two key words, "one is 'stoicism', no matter what happens, can persist; the other is 'warmth', compared with our hammers, the previous generation of people is obviously much more open-minded than we are, much more tolerant, I don't know if it is experienced, if so, then write out their experience and share it with everyone." So, this is another work of homage, a tribute to my fathers. ”
Shenzhen workers record the era of breaking waves in the Greater Bay Area
"The world needs emotional stability" is a migrant worker living in Shenzhen, and in an interview, she repeatedly stressed that she should "use a pen name" because almost no one around her knew that she was also an online literary author.
Like many post-80s generations, she watched in 2000's "The Legend of Wukong" enter the pit of online novels. "It's very fortuitous to write your own web novels." Because she is responsible for overseas markets in the company, she often travels around the world on business, sometimes going to three countries at most a month, "a person who has been drifting outside for too long, very homesick, just write something to ease up." ”
On a business trip to Paris in 2019, she found a window in which the original luxury goods were replaced by domestic mobile phones, computers and other communication products. "I was very emotional at the time, remembering that when I did market research in Europe ten years ago, many consumers said 'Chinese goods, people without money can buy the right thing', which was very sad." Now that I see that domestic products are also very good, I think I should write about the transformation in this decade. That night, she knocked on the opening chapter of "The Age of Broken Waves." The story from 2002 to 2017 tells the entrepreneurial history of the protagonist relying on the foundry factory to manufacture domestic communication equipment and create an ecological chain.
Although she did not have the experience of starting her own business, she has dealt with communication products more since the "human world needs emotional stability" work, which has helped her greatly. "I've really worked on the whole process of a product from production to sales to delisting, and when I write, I can avoid things that violate the laws of business."
In order to collect materials, in addition to reading market reports and communicating with industry insiders, she also used the holiday to work in a friend's mobile phone store to observe the real life status of local manufacturing workers in Dongguan. "A lot of entrepreneurs have said that they really don't want to work as a contractor all the time to make very thin profits." These reflections are also placed on the protagonist of "Breaking Waves".
"The times are like a huge wave, when they come, everyone is heavy and floating, and no one can guarantee that they can stand at the head of the tide." Therefore, for national enterprises, knowing that failures are always more than success, they still have to meet them without hesitation. "The world needs emotional stability" hopes to give entrepreneurs and strivers more courage through their novels." I studied journalism and worked as a journalist at a newspaper. When I graduated, my tutor told us that no matter what we do in the future, we must have a sense of responsibility, and we must 'shoulder morality on our iron shoulders and write articles with clever hands'. It doesn't meet that standard yet, but I want to do it. ”
At the end of last year, "The Age of Broken Waves" won the gold medal of the Greater Bay Area Cup Online Literature Competition, and what makes "the world need emotional stability" even happier is that many readers will be willing to share their stories with her. "Some people say that it is difficult to find a job just after graduation, and after reading a novel, they will continue to submit a resume; some people will circle some sentences very carefully. I felt as if I had helped them. ”
Post-80s trainers witnessed the fruitful results of industrial poverty alleviation
Hua Pan, who majored in international economics and trade, has been engaged in marketing and talent development in the top 500 companies and well-known listed companies in the United States, and is a senior corporate trainer. In 2019, because I watched several reality-themed TV series of "Little Joy" and "All Is Good", I had the idea of writing my own life story. "My first novel, Post-Youth, was about migratory bird-like families in the Yangtze River Delta and about my life at the time. This story is very real, it is easier to resonate, at that time only wrote the opening chapter, many editors and screenwriters paid attention to this novel. This strengthened my determination to write a reality online novel. ”
2020 is the year to win the battle against poverty. Hua Pan, who worked at a nut brand, thought that he was familiar with an industrial poverty alleviation project that had been rooted in Yunnan for 20 years to grow macadamia nuts, which was suitable for writing a novel. "I know a female supplier who has been going to the mountains to promote macadamia nuts since 2002, living with farmers, even pruning and pruning herself, and building a nut-like building in the local area to help farmers who have failed to introduce seeds regain their confidence."
Hua Pan introduced that the large-scale introduction of macadamia nuts in China began in 1979, but the development of the period was quite tortuous, and the harvest period was particularly long, which provided an epic background for the novel "23 and a half degrees north latitude". "The book has created two protagonists, one is the second generation of Zhiqing who firmly introduced macadamia nuts, and the other is a seller, in addition to involving equipment research and development personnel, local poor households, etc., basically writing the context of the entire supply chain."
During the writing period, Hua Pan found that although he had mastered a lot of first-hand story materials, there were very few professional materials in the industry. "I went to CNKI to check other people's papers, which have a lot of data and policies, as well as the development of the industry at different stages, and this process is also very interesting."
"Get Rich 23 degrees and a half north latitude" has a time span of up to 40 years, and the bright line of the novel is to write about poverty alleviation, but behind it is also infiltrated with the changes in the lives of ordinary people in the past 40 years of reform and opening up. "A partner once said that nuts and nuts, stick to it will have results, this 'nut spirit' is worth conveying to readers."
Now, Hua Pan has begun to create full-time. In her view, people from all walks of life can write their own stories through online literature, "helping readers to understand an industry in the form of a novel, which is also of great practical significance." At present, Hua Pan is conceiving a soft science fiction genre of reality novels, and she hopes that her works will make more explorations in improving literature and innovating expressions.
Expert comments: Online literature with realistic themes also needs to enhance the grip of works
The creation of realistic themes has become an outlet in the field of online literary content. The more popular film and television works in the past two years, such as "Big Rivers", "All Very Good", and "The Beginning", are all very good adaptations of online novels with realistic themes. It can be premonitioned that the shift from the realistic theme of upstream content creation will bring about a new rise of midstream and downstream realistic theme film and television works and audiovisual works. From the perspective of general trends and social contexts, the IP derivative of reality-themed online novels will usher in a new era and present a new climax.
The creation of online literature with realistic themes also needs to enhance the grip of the work. Today's realistic theme creations have been a lot, and there are many award-winning works, but how its actual influence is, whether it is really loved by the majority of readers, there is still a mismatch. To write realistic theme works that touch people's hearts, creators should go deep into life and understand life, not only to understand a superficial phenomenon of life, but to be able to enter people's hearts, grasp the most sensitive parts of people's inner world, and then use artistic expression to create infectious works. To enhance the grip is not something that can be done in one or two sentences, I hope that creators can truly sink into the depths of life and feel the pulse of the times.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "It is necessary to extract themes and extract themes from the changes of the times, the progress of China, and the call of the people, show the beauty of Chinese history, the beauty of mountains and rivers, and the beauty of culture, express the aspirations of the Chinese people to struggle, the power of creation, and the fruits of development, and show the spiritual weather of the new era in an all-round panorama." "This is a very high demand, although it cannot be reached, the heart yearns for it." The creation of online reality themes is now not a shortage of people, too few people to create, too few works, but to enhance its artistic strength, enhance its close to the reality of fireworks and grip.
——Professor of the School of Letters, Central South University, Ouyang Youquan