Chinese online literary works gain huge overseas readership

“Chinese Internet literary works are now available in more than 40 countries along the Belt and Road and they are translated into more than 10 foreign languages,” said Fang Zhenghui,deputydirector of the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration.

To be specific, Chinese literary works on female enjoy huge popularity in Southeast Asia, according to China Literature, a pioneer of the online literature market that operates an online literature platform in China.

Webnovel, the company'sportalserving foreign readers has reaped 40 million users.

“Launched in 2017, the platform has released more than 500 literary works in English, Spanish,Malay, Vietnamese, Thai, French, Turkish and Filipino. One of the books was read more than 300 million times,” said Yang Zhan, a senior manager of the company.

“Foreign readers often push authors to upgrade their books by leaving messages on our platform,” said Yang. Why is Internet literature so popular overseas?

Wang Xiang, a researcher on the Lu Xun Literary Institute, said the production of Chinese Internet literature conforms to the logic of Internet communication, because the production mechanism is centered on the readers and largely based on their preferences.

“China has more than 14 million online literary writers, the largest size in the world,” said Chinese author Tangjiasanshao, or Zhang Wei. The biggest source of inspiration for them is the long and rich Chinese history and culture.

Xiao Jinghong, deputy director on the institute of Internet Literature of the Chinese Writers Association, said cross-cultural communication driven by the development of technology and media globalization has enabled online literary works to inherit Chinese civilization while absorbing advanced culture in the world.

Industry insiders also called on the establishment of an international intellectualpropertyright protection system so as to efficiently deal withpiracy. They also suggested the industry avoid cultural shock-related issues such as ethnic and religious issues in online literary works while making the latter global.

Word bank

1. deputy /'depjuti/ n. 代理人；副职；副手

2. portal /'pɔːtl/ n. 门户网站

3. property /'prɒpəti/ n. 所有物；财产；资产

4. piracy /'paɪrəsi/ n. 非法复制；盗印

Critical thinking

Why is Chinese Internet literature so popular overseas apart from the reasons given in the text?