Beijing, April 7 (China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Shen Jiequn) Today, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The report points out that while China's online literature is booming in 2021, it has shown a good sense of social value and cultural responsibility, and has also shown a new style and characteristics of inheriting the past and opening up the future, and has become a Chinese story created by the public and read by the whole people.
The report said that mass creation has promoted the turn of online literary themes, the rapid rise of realistic themes and science fiction themes, traditional themes such as historical immortals have also shown the transformation of the spiritual core, and the diversified content pattern has taken shape. According to the data of Reading Group, the compound growth rate of realistic themes in the five years from 2016 to 2021 exceeded 30%, ranking second in the whole category and the category with the top 5 growth rate in 2021.
The report points out that a sign of the turn of realistic themes is that in terms of creative techniques, online literature combines the protagonist's career development with the changes of the times and national rejuvenation. The creation of various walks of life as the background has become a new trend of online novels.
Online writer Mei Shiniang's work "The Running Age - South to North", set against the background of the establishment of the Hainan Special Economic Zone in 1988, records the history of her father's efforts in the Hainan Special Economic Zone, focusing on the growth and struggle of young people after the reform and opening up.
The online writer "Half West Wind Half Sand" is also a realistic theme author. In life, he is engaged in the research and development and manufacturing of synthetic paper equipment, familiar with mechanical equipment design and manufacturing, hydraulics, electrical, electronic circuits, intelligent control, plastic and rubber material synthesis and other fields. His work "Great Power Mechanics" is the popular serial work of the Reading Group Reality Channel this year.
A few days ago, in an exclusive interview with a reporter from the China Youth Daily and the China Youth Network, "half of the west wind and half of the sand" said that he felt that there was a great demand for realistic themes for online readers, and showed a "pragmatic" tendency.
"Half of the West Wind and Half of the Sand" has written historical novels before, he admitted, and then he also "followed the trend" and "got together" to create the most popular fantasy and urban themes of the year, trying to write novels "from the perspective of others", which was not successful, so he thought of writing his own business. Recently, the novel "Great Power Mechanics" created close to his own industry has unexpectedly won praise from readers.
"What this character should be like, I will write him what he is, and it turns out that this way of writing is correct, and only by writing about the character can I get into the wood."
In his view, online literary works have been developing in the direction of "pragmatism" in recent years, and readers are no longer obsessed with "mythical certain characters", but are more and more inclined to understand the stories of ordinary people.
Because he still has his job, he goes to work from 8 o'clock to 6:30 p.m. every morning and starts writing at 7:30 p.m. Spend three hours writing 10,000 words, make the appropriate revisions at 6 o'clock the next morning, and then publish.
"Half of the West Wind and Half of the Sand" joked, "Great Power Mechanics" wrote a lot of technical content about car repair, and it turned out that "some people took my book to repair cars, because their car problems are exactly the same as those described in my book." Then there will be very "more real" academic readers who will come to discuss the technical problems involved in the novel with him.
The phenomenon of "technical dry goods" mentioned in "Half West Wind and Half Sand" is also reflected in the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature".
With the refinement, mainstreaming and the trend of thematic shift of online literature, reading online literature is no longer just a pastime after tea and dinner, but gradually becomes the entrance to the knowledge learning of Generation Z, and it is common to discuss "hardcore" science in the comment area. For example, in the book review area of Morningstar LL's "Black Technology System of Xueba", there are "wild class representatives" around the "weekly guess", "twin prime number conjecture", "corner valley conjecture" and other knowledge to sort out the main points, answer questions, and form a "popular science atmosphere group".
According to the statistics of the starting point reading app, in 2021 alone, the keyword "knowledge" appeared 130,000 times in the book review area, "physics" appeared 70,000 times, "chemistry" appeared 16,000 times, and even "high number" appeared more than 5,000 times.
Creating a realistic theme novel, bringing a deep feeling to the "half of the west wind and half of the sand" is: "If you don't integrate the real experience into the novel, it is difficult to grasp the reader." Once the plot and characters appear to be "suspended", the novel will inevitably lose readers quickly. Authenticity, so that the novel has a sense of substitution and "stickiness".
Source: China Youth Daily client