Users are increasingly getting hooked to translations of voluminous Chinese novels online before themselves writing 400-chapter books, some later adapted for television, Mei Jia reports.
Five popular novels released by Webnovel, a major website of Chinese online literature. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Almas Ilyas, a Pakistani, would never have imagined she could finish reading a novel that has more than 400 chapters. But she did. And by the time she finished reading a translated Chinese novel online, the experience opened up a whole new world of opportunities for her.
Briton Jack Garden Shawn has read such voluminous Chinese novels a few times and says he now does not feel like reading anything that has less than 1,700 chapters. He has no dearth of choices online.
According to the latest report on China's online literature scene, released by the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association on the fourth China Online Literature Plus Conference in September, 3,452 original Chinese titles had been translated into foreign languages by 2019; that includes 1,700 titles in English on the sector's leading website Webnovel.
The astronomical number of chapters in typical Chinese online novels is one of the first "wow" factors for readers outside China. Online literature has been developing for more than two decades in China and readers are accustomed to its length and have embraced it
At 1,500 English words per chapter, each novel Shawn picks up has at least 2.5 times the number of words in the seven-volume Harry Potter series, and nearly 10 times that in James Joyce's tome Ulysses.
The astronomical number of chapters in typical Chinese online novels is one of the first "wow" factors for readers outside China. Online literature has been developing for more than two decades in China and readers are accustomed to its length and have embraced it. They enjoy the fact that many of the novels have been adapted into television dramas, films, games and animations. Some have even been serialized on Netflix.
Now the online literature is finding takers overseas. According to the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, the number of overseas readers of Chinese online literature reached 32 million toward the end of 2019.
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Both Ilyas and Shawn are avid readers of literature online on this new medium that gets updated daily, is interactive between the creators and readers, and often offers, in Shawn's words, "an experience of growing with the main character". Not satisfied with just reading, both Shawn and Ilyas felt the urge to write stories of their own.
When the first chapters of their English-language work were uploaded on Webnovel, which is managed by a Chinese company called China Literature Corp, their writing spread wings and changed their lives by fetching them enough money to support their decision to quit their full-time jobs.
Overseas writers
According to the White Book of 2020 Online Literature and China Literature Corporate, Chinese writers apart, Webnovel had some 100,000 overseas writers creating multi-chapter stories and uploading them daily for readers around the world in November.
The portal for English-language writers on the website was officially launched in April 2018 and had attracted 12,000 overseas writers in 2019.
Ilyas' debut novel, Mr CEO Loves the Devilish Beauty, is a contemporary romance in which a powerful company boss falls in love with a mysterious beauty who has other plans.
For almost two years now, her stories have been set in Chinese cities although she had never been to China until her visit to Shanghai in November to receive an award.
"The Chinese setting in my novel comes from imagination, from the Chinese novels I have read, the dramas I have watched, and the research I have done," she says. She writes under the pen name of XiaoMeeHee, which means "little adventure".
Under the pen name of JKSManga, Shawn's ongoing work, My Vampire System, gets updated daily. With 500 chapters already uploaded, it is by far the most popular English-language online story on Webnovel.
The fantasy novel has got 17.3 million views, has been rated 4.7 out of 5 by 3,500 readers, and received the "Most Popular Overseas Original Work" title at the First Shanghai International Online Literature Week in mid-November.
Online literature, featuring a large number of users, a wide range of topics, and interactivity, has expanded the scope and significance of international cultural exchanges.
Cheng Wu, CEO of China Literature Corp
About his online success, the 24-year-old Shawn says: "Back home, my dad said,'I know nobody at your age who's doing what you do and earning as much as you earn'."
Unlike Ilyas, Shawn has been living in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, for three years.
Raised up in Slough, the United Kingdom, Shawn was influenced by his father to watch Asian movies and drama in his formative years. Later in life he moved to Hangzhou as a music teacher at a primary school while also creating comics for a manga company.
A faithful reader of translated online literature, like Super Gene and The Legendary Mechanic, he says "the authors have created such an immersive world, I felt like I have escaped from mine while reading it".
He gradually began picking up the tricks of the trade in Chinese novels online－cultivation (similar to the model employed in video games, in which one fights the monsters, gains points and goes up one level in the quest to become immortal), leveling up, martial arts and more.
"I'd unconsciously been noticing how Chinese authors built their plots and employed writing techniques," Shawn says. "Later on, I began noting down the plots that came to my mind and constantly asked myself: How would I describe my story to someone in 30 seconds?"
He came up with the answer himself, deciding that combining the techniques employed in Harry Potter and Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, will "immediately grab readers' attention and help paint pictures in their minds".
In Shawn's ongoing story, the commonly seen "system" and "leveling up" elements of Chinese online literature are in harmony with vampire legends and interstellar sci-fi settings.
Shawn used to wake up at 4 am and write two chapters every day before leaving for work. Until one fine day in August, when he decided to quit his teacher's job and focus wholly on writing.
Readers comment daily on each chapter he writes. "Their feedback is my greatest motivation," he says. In fact, some readers have even formed an online community, and get in touch with him.
This undated photo shows international authors and translators visit Shanghai during an event hosted by Webnovel in mid-November, 2020. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Evolving from nothing
Cheng Wu, CEO of China Literature Corp, says Webnovel now offers some 160,000 original online novels written in English and those might be translated into more languages soon.
"Online literature, featuring a large number of users, a wide range of topics, and interactivity, has expanded the scope and significance of international cultural exchanges," Cheng says.
So there is an IT engineer living in Barcelona who created the first of the English-language hits under the pen name of Alemillach. Then there is an English and Chinese double-major graduate from Texas called Logan (pen name AuthorWiz), who explored afterlife with Reborn: Evolving From Nothing.
"It was in response to the increasing demand of these people to create their versions of the stories they've been reading, that we began offering Webnovel as a channel," says Chen Shanshan, head of China Literature's overseas business section.
Topic and theme apart, these authors know well about the tricks of online writings, Chen says. "Like, there should be a climax every three chapters, and a twist every five chapters."
Chinese online literature has in a sense become a cultural symbol that suits the growing number of millennials worldwide.
Liu Yuren, Director of content, Webnovel
A prominent trend of 2020 is that more market players are entering the business of offering literature online to a world audience.
"We see 10 to 20 new companies. This is a promising period for Chinese online literature to go global," she says. "As a pioneer, my company chose the right direction two years ago."
Because of the pandemic that has confined people indoors and aided by a ripe business model, in these upsetting times online literature is developing in a big way and seeing a good year.
Ilyas says her earnings from online writing helped her sustain her family during the pandemic. The 24-year-old author began dabbling in online literature in the last years of her software engineering course.
At the China Online International Literature Festival in Shanghai in November, she was honored as the "Highest Potential Overseas Author". Her novel Mr CEO Loves the Devilish Beauty is complete (no more daily updates) with 425 chapters and has attracted 12.6 million views.
It was at the market's calling that Chinese online literature began going overseas, Chen says.
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Webnovel, also known as Qidian International, was launched in 2017. Qidian is one of the group's top online platforms for quality work in China.
"We received feedback that a large readership was forming outside, and some of the overseas readers were even volunteering to translate the stories and share them for free on various social media and other online platforms," Chen says.
Chinese-Singaporean Jeremy Oon Hong Wen, who has a master's degree in physics, has been a volunteer translator since 2015.
As a fan of kung fu stories, Oon translated True Martial World and Lord of Mysteries under the pen name of CKtalon.
Oon has a theory about why online novels click with readers from varied cultural backgrounds, and he believes the feeling is, in a certain sense, universal.
"It has a charm that is able to connect common points in the human psyche. Brotherhood, friendship, loyalty, desire to be recognized, etc," he says.
"Such stories can always be presented with freshness that exceeds the limits of one's imagination."
Liu Yuren, director of content at Webnovel, says: "Chinese online literature has in a sense become a cultural symbol that suits the growing number of millennials worldwide."
Sharing culture
Besides increasing the number of translated works and the emerging original foreign-language writers, the White Book points out that a third new trend is adaptations or IP-related operations for reaching out to more audiences overseas.
Some of the titles have been published in print versions overseas, like The City of Sand in English by Penguin-Random. The King's Avatar is a real sensation in its animated and TV adaptations; the writers mentioned above are its fans.
No matter how stressed the world is, online literature serves as the perfect cushion, besides offering greater understanding about the Chinese culture of faith in inclusiveness and harmony.
Chen Dingjia, Scholar, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
"We're quite consistent in the business model of paid reading," Chen says. "And the trajectory this model has followed with foreign authors is the same as with Chinese authors: Translation first, then original writings and then IP operations."
And newer companies like Funstory.ai are focusing on applying the power of artificial intelligence to translations.
According to Funstory.ai CEO Tong Ye, the company is planning to apply AI to increase the efficiency of translating Chinese online novels.
"No matter how stressed the world is, online literature serves as the perfect cushion, besides offering greater understanding about the Chinese culture of faith in inclusiveness and harmony," says Chen Dingjia, a scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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For Yan Feng, a professor at Fudan University, Chinese online novels emphasize a sense of right and wrong that the world badly needs at this moment of great confusion.
"Chinese stories feature grand plotlines and scenarios, unlike trivial narrations in some other parts of the world," Yan says. "That's why people all over the world crave for such connections, and 'a community with a shared future for mankind' for spiritual, material, technological and cultural exchanges."
Contact the writer at meijia@chinadaily.com.cn
