Visitors look through books on display at an online literature fair in Beijing in 2018. The population of online writers and readers has seen tremendous growth over the past few decades. (WAN XIAOJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

The Global Author Incubation Project in 2022 (GAIP) and the 2021 Webnovel Spirity Awards (WSA) Launching Ceremony was officially held in Singapore on Feb 11, with the aim of bringing the development of online literature to a higher level.

The Global Author Incubation Project aims to nurture new and original online literature talent globally and give impetus to drive the development of online literature to a new stage consisting of higher quality while promoting cultural exchanges around the world

Initiated by Webnovel, China Literature’s overseas platform, the National University of Singapore, and Nanyang Technological University, the official launch of the GAIP marks a comprehensive upgrade in content reserve, editor training, and resource integration among other aspects, to further promote the creator ecosystem. 

As Webnovel's program to nurture original writers with zero foundation, the GAIP aims to nurture new and original online literature talent globally and give impetus to drive the development of online literature to a new stage consisting of higher quality while promoting cultural exchanges around the world.

The event was organized by China Literature and Marina Bay Sands.

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Globalization of the digital era has made online literature the most dynamic vehicle for cross-cultural communication, helping realize the vision of connecting the world through stories, said Hou Xiaonan, president of China Literature and vice president of Tencent On-line Video Business Unit. 

China Literature hopes to look into new models and possibilities for a global cultural ecosystem with the industrial innovation of online literature and to explore a digital solution for cultural exchange and mutual learning with cross-cultural openness and co-creation, he said.

Hsiung Pingchen, UNESCO CIPSH Secretary-General, said the development of the Internet and online literature has become a household phenomenon worldwide, adding that online literature will create more possibilities in the future.

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The popularity of online literature around the world has also injected more vitality into the 2021 WSA Essay Contest, an annual global prize essay contest that aims to explore and nurture potential authors across the globe. Nearly 80,000 novels were submitted, 68 percent of which were first published on the Webnovel platform.