"I will always be rooted in the grassroots and pay attention to the most ordinary, most extraordinary, and most daily life of ordinary people." Today, the award ceremony of the 2024 4th Seven Cats Chinese Network Realistic Theme Essay Contest was held in Shanghai Zhangjiang Science Hall, and the highest award of this year, the "Golden Seven Cats Award", Lingxi Wingless "River and Sea Search" and the black and white fox "Miss Xiguan" won this year's "Best IP Value Award", and the writer Black and White Fox shared his creative insights.
With the theme of "Chinese Passwords, Glory and Dreams", the contest encourages online literary creators to use vivid Chinese stories to compose the glory and dreams of the Chinese nation, so that more people can understand the "Chinese Code" behind the miracle of development. The competition consists of four major themes: "People's Livelihood Happiness Code", "Cultural Confidence Code", "Science and Technology Science Fiction Code" and "Seven Cats Fantasy Code". Among the more than 7,000 submissions, 32 award-winning works stood out, including 2 "Best IP Value Awards", 3 "Best IP Potential Awards", 4 "First Prizes in Classification", 8 "Second Prizes in Classification", and 15 "Excellent Works Awards".
With the emergence of writing in the fields of archaeology, medical treatment, scientific research, and intangible cultural heritage, realistic themes have become the "keywords" for online literature to grasp the pulse of the times, and it has also brought a clearer direction for the high-quality development of online literature.
Recording the glorious chapter of the Chinese people's pursuit of a better life is a valuable opportunity to promote the high-quality development of the literary cause. According to the industry, online literature has become the backbone of the development of the literature and content industry in the new era, and with the continuous release of its IP value, the empowering role of online literature in the entire cultural industry chain has become more prominent.
According to the "2023 Research Report on the Development of Online Literature in China" released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the social influence of online literature will continue to increase in 2023, and the online literature industry will usher in a market of 300 billion yuan.
Taking the work "River and Sea Diving" as an example, the novel is presented in the form of a near-future science fiction novel, focusing on the field of underwater archaeology, skillfully combining the new progress of marine technology with the salvage of historical relics and the protection of underwater cultural heritage, showing the spiritual outlook of several generations of archaeologists who have guarded the cultural bloodline with their efforts and affection. "Miss Xiguan" interweaves elements of the workplace, business warfare and attention to the urban context, delicately outlines the struggle and transformation of women in the modern urban jungle, deeply excavates the road of women's self-awakening and independence, and injects strong humanistic care into the discussion of urban heritage protection and commercial development.
Lingxi Wuyi's previous work "Ordinary Alley" won the "First Prize in Classification" of the 3rd Seven Cats Chinese Network Realistic Theme Essay Competition, and was selected into the list of key online literature works supported by the China Writers Association in 2023; Black and White Fox's last work "I Repair Ancient Books for China" won the "Best IP Value Award" in the 3rd Seven Cats Chinese Network Realistic Theme Essay Competition.
The three works that won the "Best IP Potential Award" in the competition are: the sci-fi masterpiece "Crossing the Boundless" that explores the continuation of human civilization, "The Companion" that writes the appearance of all beings in contemporary society from the perspective of a new professional "escort", and "Wild Chrysanthemum" that composes the three clues of the times around the three clues of "politics, business and learning" in the countryside in the 1990s.
Other award-winning works include "On the Earth", which tells the story of several generations of oil people, "The Voice of the Clouds", which showcases the charm of the intangible cultural heritage "Minqin Camel Rider", "Building Dreams in the Deep Sea", which focuses on the scientific research of marine mines, and "Kunlong", which focuses on the development and manufacturing of amphibious aircraft.
The Seven Cats Reality Theme Essay Contest has been held for four years, cultivating a number of outstanding writers' works, and uniting platforms and institutions in the whole industry chain to jointly explore new paths for the transformation of online literature IP, with remarkable results. Seven Cats insists on excavating and bringing together a group of writers with feelings and dreams, and showing the public the mainstream and high-quality online articles that can face the propositions of the times, including bandits, Lingxi Wingless, Black and White Fox, White Horse out of Liangzhou, Gu Tianxi and other writers' related works have won many awards and IP derivative development.
Up to now, more than 17,000 papers have been received in the Realistic Essay Contest, 430 high-quality realistic works have been signed, and nearly 30 works have been authorized for physical publication. Film and television development is also opening up the scale, and the reality-themed criminal investigation work "Detective Sniper" has sold the copyright of the online long drama and has been selected as a key support project of Anhui Provincial Radio and Television in 2024; The urban suspense work "Peeping Night" sold the copyright of the online long drama, the project was produced by Han Sanping, and Kong Ergou served as the screenwriter.
Han Hongchang, founder and president of Seven Cats, said, "I remember when the first contest was awarded in 2021, I said at the time that Seven Cats' realistic essay contest must not be a gimmick, but also a gimmick. Held for the fourth time, there is no fatigue for this 'original intention', but more persistence and determination. ”
Compared with previous competitions, this year's award-winning works show a more significant trend of IP direction. For example, "Piercing Dust", "Fireworks and Beautiful Soup", "Happy Events in the World", "Epiphany in the Night", "Sin Banquet", "Under the Shadow" and so on are promoting film and television copyright licensing. The winning work of this year's Best IP Value Award "Miss Xiguan" will be given priority to film and television development.
The physical publication of a number of award-winning works has been significantly accelerated, and this year's Best IP Potential Award "Through the Boundless" has recently been published and listed, and works such as "Searching for the River and Sea", "Accompanying Doctor", "On the Earth", "Happy Events in the World", "Kunlong", "Finally Seeing the Green Mountain" and other works have reached publishing cooperation.
Another highlight of this year's award-winning works is that it fully demonstrates the perspective of female writers, many female writers write women's stories, the protagonists of the novel are all women, "Fireworks and Soup" focuses on the current dilemma of motherhood punishment, and the heroine of "Happy Events in the World" is sent back to her hometown as a cultural tourism planner as an urban white-collar worker...... All use delicate brushstrokes to depict the growth and transformation of women in the new era.
With the theme of "The Interweaving of Reality and Fantasy: The Integration Path of Fiction and Physical Publishing", the publishing forum discussed how online literary writing and physical book publishing can help "science and technology power", the exploration of online literary publishing types, and how to evaluate high-quality publishing topics.
With the theme of "Let Readers Have Wonderful Fantasy: Building a Bridge from Text to Audio-visual", the film and television forum featured Seven Cats author Black and White Fox, Jin Xiao, Zhang Dong, producer of Jin Haiou Media, Zhang Xiao, head of IP of Tencent Video Account-sharing Drama Business Center, Zhang Jing, professor of drama, film and television literature at the School of Drama, Film and Television of Communication University of China, and Liu Muhan, producer of Seven Cats Pictures, discussed topics such as how to explore the commercial value of realistic stories, innovative methods of realistic themes in high-quality short dramas, and how data can bring reference value to the creation of dramas.
The event was guided by the Shanghai Writers Association, hosted by Shanghai Seven Cats Culture Media Co., Ltd., co-organized by the Chinese Literature Network, and supported by Shanghai Zhangjiang (Group) Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Literary Creation Center.