Young web article VS ancient romance, who won this summer

"Burning Love Diva" Tonghua added another blockbuster drama "Sauvignon Blanc" after "Step by Step".

In this year's "crazy inner roll" summer file, "Sauvignon Blanc" handed over a good answer. Not only did the popularity value exceed 32,000 one week after the start of broadcasting, creating a new record for the highest number of Tencent Video dramas in 2023, but also had a certain advantage in market share, according to Yunhe data, the market share of "Sauvignon Blanc" hit list exceeded 30%, and the highest market share reached 34.8%.

Coincidentally, the "chivalrous love diva" Teng Ping, who is also the "four little love divas" with Tonghua, also has new news in this summer file. "Lotus Building", adapted from its early masterpiece "Auspicious Lotus Building", has been closely following "Sauvignon Blanc" in popularity since its launch, with a maximum market share of 28.9%, and also achieved a reverse surpass on "Sauvignon Blanc" on August 6.

Data source: Yunhe Data

"Four Little Romance Divas" is a generation's youth memory, even romance enlightenment. And when their works are filmed and television, due to the huge time span, it is inevitable that they need to make certain changes to the original work.

The characters of the three male protagonists in "Sauvignon Blanc" have been deleted and modified in different plots: Lingying's power line is reduced, Xiangliu's emotional line is exposed, Tu Shanjing's ability line is weakened, and so on. In comparison, "Lotus Tower" has changed more, the most obvious is that Shan Gudao in the original work was originally just a simple role, but the scene in the play was aggravated and became a key character.

In the face of changes, the original author did not express dissatisfaction, Tonghua even personally handled the adaptation of "Sauvignon Blanc", "Sauvignon Blanc" has a Douban score of 7.6, "Lotus Building" is as high as 8.1, a good reputation proves the audience's recognition of the content.

With the change of the audience's aesthetic trend and value orientation, romance novels are also facing value judgments at different times. In this way, the older romance novels are, the stronger the collision and aesthetic dislocation.

But from the perspective of this summer file, the romance works of ten years ago are on fire, but the romance works in recent years have broken one by one, "Secretly Can't Hide" and "My Human Fireworks", two works completed from 2017 to 2019, even if some effort has been spent on adaptation, they still face public opinion controversy.

Ancient romance IP still has a strong vitality in the drama market, is this the aesthetic reincarnation of the audience, or does the romance drama market have a new choice?

"Queen of Heaven" romance path

In 2005, Tonghua completed the final revision of his first novel "Step by Step", and it was also in that year that "Lonely and Empty Spring Desire", Gu Man's "Why Sheng Xiao Silent" and Ming Xiaoxi's "Bubble Summer" came out one after another, and the popular works gave birth to the popularity of online literary romance themes.

"Step by step", "Lonely and empty, spring is late", "Why is silent", "Bubble Summer"

For a long time before that, the mainland romance market was occupied by Taiwanese romance novels.

In 1963, Qiong Yao published her first novel "Outside the Window", which opened the "Qiong Yao Romance Era", and after the broadcast of "Wanjun" in 1990, Qiong Yao drama entered the mainland screen, and Taiwanese romance also began to widely enter the mainland market, Xi Xi's "Love Through Time and Space", Zuo Qingwen's "Fire Youth" and other new-generation romance novels quickly occupied the market, and pure love became the mainstream of the romance market.

"Wanjun"

After the millennium, the mainland romance market was hit by two waves from Korean dramas and Taiwan puppets.

In 2002, the Korean drama "Blue Life and Death Love" was broadcast on 21 channels in the mainland, and the novel setting of "car accident, cancer, and cure" impacted the old romance conflicts in the past, and the pathos created by the beautiful atmosphere overshadowed the previous Qiong Yao-style bitterness; On the other hand, the phenomenal idol drama "Meteor Garden" swept across Asia, and the characters of "overbearing president" and "warm male second" have become a new trend in romance popularity.

"Blue Life and Death Love" "Meteor Garden"

With the rise of online literature in 2003, romance novels have undergone a certain degree of stylistic innovation under the impact of the online environment and the times: developing fresher character relationships and storylines, no longer sticking to the love of men and women, more exploring the complexity of character relationships, and thinking about the trials of human nature in historical background.

In "Step by Step", the modern woman Zhang Xiao travels back to the court battle of "nine sons to seize the concubine", sees the cruelty of feudal imperial power, and finally runs out of oil; In "Song in the Clouds", Yunge faces the bloody storm of the court power struggle, is powerless to save his lover, and loses his love. Although the relationship between the characters is still the romance setting of "one woman and many men", on this basis, it increases the depiction of the times and human nature.

Drama version of "Step by Step" and "Song in the Clouds"

Pacific Women's Network once commented on Tonghua, "Her works are less lingering than ordinary romance novels, more majestic atmosphere, and the turbulent historical background makes love more volatile." ”

Tonghua once said that his writing was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, "From "Step by Step", "The Desert Ballad" to "Song in the Clouds", there are shadows of his novels, as well as his attitude towards love and life. In an interview, I also mentioned that I began reading "Dream of Red Mansions" at the age of 9 and wrote miscellaneous essays on the Red Chamber Forum for a long time.

"The Desert Ballad"

The rich reading volume and professional expertise of online romance authors are reflected in their works. Graduated from the law department of Sun Yat-sen University, Fuji Ping writes about the chivalrous and delicate warmth of the rivers and lakes; Cangyue, who is interested in anime games, has built a martial arts world with a refreshing sense of game mode in design.

The author's style and specialties fill the depth and breadth of romance themes, making the online romance themes greatly enriched, and readers have successively elected "Four Little Divas", "Six Little Princesses", "Eight Little Linglong" and other head authors.

After 2005, "Four Little Love Divas" ushered in the peak of creation, of which Bandit I Sicun created 16 works, all of which were published and sold. In November 2009, the starting point Chinese took the lead in opening the second battlefield "Starting Point Girls Network", and other online literary websites were also set up one after another, and the online romance market entered a period of stable growth.

During this period, "sadomasochism" became the main theme of online romance. After "Step by Step", Tonghua successively launched the "Great Han Love" series and the "Mountain and Sea Age" series, the story continues the style of "Step by Step", still emphasizing the struggle of human nature and the pathos of fate.

Not only Tonghua, but also the works of early online romance authors, most of them are pathetic tones. Milan Lady's masterpiece "Lonely City Closed", princess Song Hui Rou and internal attendant Liang Huaiji trapped in the shackles of the feudal dynasty, regret for life; Bandit I Sicun is known as the "stepmother", and the male protagonist died of illness at the end of "Good Times Like a Dream"; Even Gu Man, who focuses on sweet pets, has some sadomasochistic plots in the early "Why Sheng Xiao Mo", and Zhao Mosheng and He Yichen have a family bond related to life and death.

"Lonely City Closed" and "Good Times Like a Dream"

Strong plots with more saturated emotions are almost universal in early romance novels, and "sadomasochism" is always more likely to make people feel deep, and readers will also feel subtle pleasure in "sadomasochism". In most works, sadomasochistic plots can become classic bridges, such as the final letter written by Martai Ruoxi in "Step by Step" written in the handwriting of the fourth master before his death, and the plot of Xiaofeng Li Chengyan jumping into the forgotten river together in "East Palace".

Parallel to sadomasochistic romance is the youth pain literature represented by Rao Xueman and Guo Jingming, which also proves the aesthetic orientation of readers of romance stories at that time. Works such as "Sadness Against the River" and "Leaving Song" place the "abuse" of the story in sensitive adolescence, the confusion about the future in the student period, and the doubt about self-identity all aggravate the emotional concentration of "abuse".

"Leaving Song" and "Sadness Against the River"

"Sadomasochism" opens up all ages, forms a strong resonance, and has plenty of room for dramatic development. At that time, it was an important period for China's Internet to transform into mobile, and the entertainment industry experienced a new round of upgrading, and romance works with "sadomasochistic" characteristics were undoubtedly a blue ocean for the drama market eager for new themes.

Dislocation of the IP adaptation era

As soon as "Step by Step" came out, it was praised as "the most suitable time-travel novel adapted into a TV series". In 2011, the era of IP adaptation arrived, and the ratings of the drama version of "Step by Step Scary" exploded, becoming the first TV series in the history of online broadcasting to exceed 100 million episodes.

During that period, online literary film and television works grew explosively, showing strong competitiveness in the TV drama market. "Too late to say I love you", adapted from "Bi Ling Shen" by Bandit I Sicun, broke 1 in ratings; The TV series of the same name adapted from Liuxizi's "The Legend of Zhen Huan" staged a ratings miracle and turned over against the wind, with an annual network broadcast volume of 9.1 billion.

"Too late to say I love you" "Harem Zhen Huan"

The "media backstage" of Peking University's web novel research group once analyzed, "The popularity of "Step by Step" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has brought a series of long-tail effects, Internet capital has begun to enter the entertainment industry, and the concept of IP has also entered the public's field of vision with these two web novel adapted film and television works. ”

After that, the success of romance big IPs such as "A Slight Smile is Very Alluring" and "Three Lives and Three Lives and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", although it has boosted the activity of the IP market, it has also become more impetuous and disorderly.

Under the trend of blindly chasing big IP in the drama market, the most important "adaptation" link has been weakened, which makes the IP adaptation path of romance authors no longer smooth. "Song in the Clouds" under the casting and acting controversy, Douban only has 3.7 points.

"A slight smile is very charming", "Three Lives and Three Lives and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms"

The realistic film and television production process is limited by objective factors such as casting and funding, and it is difficult to fully restore the novel situation, so IP adaptations are often different from the original work. The identity gap between the original author and the screenwriter of the series makes it difficult for authors to fully participate in and control the quality of film and television works, Tonghua said in an interview that writing is the process of pinching clay people, and film and television works need to break and reshape clay people, "From my personal point of view, I am reluctant to do it no matter what." ”

Some romance writers who have lost control of their work choose to bridge the gap by changing their identities.

Tonghua started from planning to contact the film and television industry, and successively planned works such as "Golden Yu Liangyuan" and "The Man Who Caught the Rainbow"; Bandit I Sicun established Shuangxiang Pictures, trying to move from pathos to sweet pets, and created a small hit "To Our Warm Little Time"; Gu Man has formed a "Gu Man Center System", fully responsible for his own works, "Why Sheng Xiao Silent", "A Slight Smile is Very Alluring" and "You Are My Glory" have successively become sweet pet hit plays.

"Golden Jade Good Fortune", "The Man Who Caught the Rainbow", "You Are My Glory"

Romance writers regain the initiative of the work, which can only ensure the reductivity of the work, and cannot influence the change of the environment. The adaptation permission of IP is usually five years, and after entering the film and television process, due to the development time span, the design of IP themes, lines and other designs has lagged far behind the current social values.

The book "Reading Romance Novels" once mentioned that "romance novels can be said to some extent to be a record of the development of women's personality, because that particular psychological structure is constructed and realized in a patriarchal culture." ”

The rise of women's consciousness in recent years is a reshaping of the romance market. The ancient overlord character is outdated, but greasy and violent, and the aesthetic requirements of female audiences for men are more inclined to the accompaniment of emotional values, and at the same time, in terms of personality, they care more about whether they are evenly matched in emotional relationships and respect women's self-awareness.

The previous adaptation of "A Thousand Mountains and Twilight Snow" greatly portrayed the violence and ruthlessness of the domineering president Mo Shaoqian, but ten years later, Bandit I Sicun planned "The Legendary Chen Qianqian", building a slightly light comedy female world.

"A Thousand Mountains and Twilight Snow" "The Rumored Chen Qianqian"

To some extent, the choice of my thoughts represents her judgment of the audience's aesthetics. In the high-pressure and fast-paced living environment, the audience no longer needs to release emotions by watching "sadomasochism", and the plain warmth of sweet pet stories can bring a certain sense of security.

And the misunderstandings and contradictions that caused sadomasochism in ancient romance, in the current context, seem to be blunt routines, and even, the old settings revealed in the story are no longer the cool point of the plot, but the thunder point.

"Brocade Like Jade" is adapted from the 2010 romance novel "Raiders of the Daughter", the play is full of a large number of brainless female competition and concubine respect, in the current social environment that emphasizes "female mutual assistance" and "self-reliance and equality" has become particularly eye-catching, and the final Douban score is only 5.6 points; similarly, the ancient lines and settings are not suitable for the current film and television environment is also based on Cangyue's novel of the same name "Mirror Twin Cities", with a Douban score of only 3.6 points.

The outdated setting in the ancient romance IP forms a strong dislocation with the aesthetics of the current audience. This also prompts film and television production companies to prefer web novels in recent years in the choice of romance IP.

Looking at the signed copyright project of Jinjiang Literature City, we can observe that the novels sold for copyright in recent years are mainly concentrated in 2018-2020. And these copyright projects have also been quickly launched for production, from current dolls to ancient dolls, including "Please Call Me Director", "Ignite Me, Warm You", "Star Han Splendid", "Long Moon Ember Ming" and other popular dramas are all from romance IPs in recent years.

"Please Call Me Director", "Ignite Me, Warm You", "Brilliant Star", "Long Moon Ember"

The cycle of aesthetics

After the emergence of a new generation of online romance writers, the style of the Z era began to shake the dominance of ancient romance.

According to the "2022 China Online Literature Development Research Report", the trend of online literature is younger, sinking or migrating to the next age group as a whole, the "post-90s" have become the backbone of creation, and the "post-00s" have become the new main force in online literary creation, and among the newly registered writers of China Literature Group in 2022, "post-00s" account for 60%.

Compared with the "sadomasochistic love" of ancient romance, the romance style of the new generation is more relaxed and pleasant, emphasizing the sense of daily life, establishing idealized love without impurities, and further upgrading the sweet pet style brought by Gu Man in 2015.

In 2017, "Her Little Pear Vortex" exploded, and the explosive romance regained a new template. Prompted by the mode of sweeping the list and scanning the text, homogeneous sweet pets are produced in large quantities, and small sweet texts such as "Secretly Can't Hide" and "Hard to Coax" have become romance explosions in the new era.

"Can't Hide Secretly" "Hard to Coax"

The new generation of readers of romance stories is almost at the same frequency as the creators in terms of age changes. According to a paper titled "Research on User Portraits in Jinjiang Literature City", the age of Jinjiang users is mainly concentrated in 18-29 years old, followed by users under 17 years old.

The increase in the number of young users inevitably makes online literature younger. On August 3, "Jinjiang Literature 17 Years Watershed" rushed to the hot search, and most of the comments were dissatisfaction with the explosive romance in recent years.

Looking at the Jinjiang total score list, we can find that six of the top ten works are relaxed and sweet articles about campus, and among the top 20 works, most of the content labels are "love", "happy and wronged", and "childhood sweetheart", of which "relaxed" and "cool text" appear the most frequently.

And as the public is tired of the industrial saccharin in the sweet pet drama, the sweet pet text with a simple story and lack of emotional logic has gradually been abandoned by the audience.

On the one hand, due to the weak core of some original stories, it is not enough to support the core mining of film and television production, and the already thin characters will inevitably become more empty under the amplification of film and television.

On the other hand, the main audience group of romance novels in recent years is young readers, while the user portraits of videos are mainly concentrated in audiences with consumption power and mature aesthetics, and the different audience groups make the young web novel have a certain difference from the aesthetics of the audience of the drama after the film and television.

The bridge of "secret love comes true" in the novel "Secretly Can't Hide" is a girl's throbbing and adolescent fantasy in the eyes of young readers, but in the adaptation, even if the screenwriter modifies the heroine's age, it will inevitably cause the audience to question the value of "pedophilia".

Stills from "Can't Hide Secretly"

The style of web literature in the new era has changed significantly, which is more in line with the orientation of the current young group, but there are few classics, and the core of the text is not solid enough. The IP market always needs a steady stream of fresh blood, although IP sources are becoming increasingly abundant, serious literature, Douban reading, Zhihu, etc. have begun to become new IP supply places. But when it comes to the romance category, it is always necessary to dig from Jinjiang, a "big romance household".

In this case, ancient romance novels have re-entered the vision of film and television companies.

In the article "IP Adaptation and Type Production of Women's Frequency Web Literature", it was said that "there were still many possibilities for women's ideological practices in early female frequency web literature, and film and television adaptations reflected the discipline of mainstream social consciousness on these practices with the selection, type solidification and revision of texts." ”

Observing ancient romance novels, it can be found that although they were written ten years ago, the core of their stories has never deviated from the idea of "big heroine" of women's self-love and self-improvement. Although Xiao Yao and the three male protagonists have inseparable emotional entanglements in "Sauvignon Blanc", she has never given up herself because of love and followed the flow.

Firm feminist ideas may have been avant-garde and novel before, but with the development of society, they are more in line with the current social values, which is a major reason why "Sauvignon Blanc" can still be selected to be adapted into a play even if it spans ten years.

However, although the early romance works are classics, they are subject to the factors of the times and there is a certain information gap with the social environment, and it is necessary to adapt them more vigorously to make them more in line with the aesthetics of contemporary audiences as much as possible.

For example, "Qing Qing Daily", adapted from "Clear Through Everyday", is a drastic modification of the original work, creating a light comedy style preferred by the current market, and adding modern consciousness such as "girls help girls" to the play, softening the palace power into a more "workplace-like" contest.

"Qing Qing's Daily"

At the same time, the screenwriter also tried to solve the problem of IP era dislocation through the reconstruction of the romance meme, for example, in "Canglan Tips", the male protagonist's sense of hegemony and high position was reconstructed into the character of "BKing", but created a fresh sense of contrast.

In "Sauvignon Blanc", the original "overlord" character has also been reconstructed, from the warm "pet sister crazy demon" to the "crazy criticism" that cannot be loved, and the personality at each stage can be accepted by the audience and is more suitable for the orientation of the current audience.

After the double screening of readers and time, most of the classic works that have entered the film and television process are works with more solid texts, which are more in line with the logic of creation. Therefore, on the basis of ensuring the core of the original work, it may be better to make appropriate adjustments to the plot of the characters with gains and losses.

The adaptation of "Sauvignon Blanc" is personally seated by Tonghua, on the basis of ensuring the core, strengthening the details of the characters, especially the heroine Xiao Yao's sense of autonomy is described in large ink, creating her sober self-knowledge, courageous and resourceful characteristics, in line with the current audience's favorite character requirements.

The drama market has never had a static blockbuster formula, and in terms of romance alone, it has undergone many stylistic changes. It is not so much the aesthetic callback of the audience, but the maturity of everyone's judgment of good content, no longer relying on the configuration of large IP + high traffic, but paying more attention to the content itself.

For film and television companies, in the selection of IP, it is necessary to consider the stability and strong influence of classic works, and cannot ignore the preferences and aesthetic needs of the audience. On this basis, if the ancient romance IP can find a suitable adaptation method, it can still shine with new brilliance at the moment.

In fact, as long as you ensure respect for the logic of creation and respect for the aesthetics of the audience, romance novels have the potential to become a hit, whether new or old, otherwise, they will only become a member of the Douban 3 division.