The scene of the 3rd Online Literature Youth List press conference
At the beginning of June, the third online literary youth list was released, and 12 works showing the youth creation and reading style of the "new generation" were selected into the annual list, such as "The End of the Ten Days", "The Day Trapped in the Eclipse", and "The Heroine Is Tired of It". During the press conference, a number of seminars and work sharing sessions were held, and topics related to "New Trends in the Development of Online Literature" became the focus.
In the past two years, the application of AI technology in the creative and literary industries has become more and more in-depth, and the popularity of micro-short dramas has also become an important cultural phenomenon. The preemption of user time, the replacement of new technologies, and the transformation and loss of industry talents have a close relationship between different forms of online literature and art, and online entertainment, and at the same time constitute mutual competition. Under all kinds of dazzling and rapid impacts, has online literature encountered a "bottleneck"? What are the authors of the younger generation thinking? What are you writing about? What are the younger generation of industry researchers doing? Where is the new path of online literature itself?
Expert Vision: The "Youth Proposition" of this Generation of Internet Literature
With the release of the "Large Model Novel Creation System" by Professor Wang Feng of East China Normal University and his team, the first human-machine novel in China - "The Apostle of Destiny" (with a word count of more than 1 million, imitating online fantasy novels), the topic of "AI challenging online text creation" has once again been pushed to a climax.
The scene of the seminar on "New Trends in the Development of Online Literature".
Ouyang Youquan, a professor at Central South University, believes that the game between literature and industry is a problem that online literature must face and urgently solve. Online literature and artificial intelligence are the same root of technology, and both are based on digital technology and emerging media to achieve production, sales, dissemination, and consumption. Creators and practitioners of online literature should be very clear that the emergence of new artificial intelligence software will inevitably affect the future form of online literature, and it is difficult to replace creation in the short term, but in the long run, it is an irreversible trend for artificial intelligence to be deeply involved in literary creation.
"What will AI technology bring?" According to Li Linrong, a professor at Beijing Second International Chinese University, the core part is massive, regular, and high-speed processing, and the final generated link has the characteristics of personality. With the development of online literature for more than 20 years, a large number of online writers have the characteristics of reorganizing information and data in their writing, and they can be completed in a short period of time, and the frequency of updates is getting faster and faster.
AI intervention in writing is like a game between people and data, in the face of powerful technology, what is the "youth proposition" of this generation of online literature? Li Yuchun, a professor at Wuhan University's School of Liberal Arts, observed that the works selected for the Youth List are diverse and cover many popular online literature platforms, reflecting the digital survival of the younger generation. He believes that the thinking of the Internet, the life form of the Internet, and the lifestyle of the Internet really enter the creation of writers, and integrate into their lives and souls, and only then can they be written into the true sense of Internet literature, and this kind of Internet literature can be leading. "Today's young people will become middle-aged and elderly in the future, but in any case, the people of the future will definitely be a generation that will survive on the Internet, and how to really write about this way of thinking and life in the digital age is what the new online literature will look like in the future."
Zhou Zhixiong, a professor at the School of Literature of Anhui University, agrees, and he is full of confidence in the younger generation of online literature writers: "Online novels have been improving, and the current online novels, such as "I Learned to Kill God in a Psychiatric Hospital", which has a lot of traffic in recent years, and "Ten Days of Death", which was shortlisted for this list, are all game systems. And the game is definitely not the same as "brainless", for example, the six Western mythological characters in "I Learned to Slay God in a Mental Hospital", each of them is mentally ill for various reasons, and the protagonist must gain magical abilities by curing their mental illness. The whole novel turns "upgrading" into another description of the spiritual world of people, even God has an ordinary side, and there are all kinds of practical problems, which lead to spiritual dilemmas, which is actually a kind of spiritual depth. "Chinese online novels are very attentive to the absorption of the world's popular culture, the integration of traditional cultural resources, and their own unique creativity, which shows the comprehensive use ability and literary pursuit of the new generation of online writers."
As for the impact of "electronic mustard" brought about by the explosion of micro-short dramas, Li Wei, a professor at Nanjing Normal University, also has a more optimistic attitude. Some people will question whether many online literary works now have IP-oriented writing characteristics, whether they have annihilated the characteristics of words or literature itself? However, in her opinion, it is the iteration and upgrading of the original content of online literature, its innovation and imagination, that have led to the generation of new cross-media formats, and many popular micro-short dramas are derived from the hot stalks of online literature. Originally led by the Yangtze River Online Literature Criticism Center and "Youth", the "Online Literature Youth List" was born in the summer of 2021, and since 2023, seven universities, including Shandong University, Peking University, Nanjing Normal University, Central South University, Anhui University, Capital Normal University, and Hangzhou Normal University, will take turns to be responsible for the monthly list selection activities, and continue to launch new masterpieces. And these innovative works that dare to break the tradition and adopt novel expressions are also likely to become the source of living water for the new format and new technology content industry in the future.
Those persistent and unstoppable struggles
Paper Tiger, a tomato novel writer born in 1998, is the first time to participate in such an event, and it is also the first time to be included in an authoritative official list. Although she has been reading online texts since high school, she is often in self-doubt when she begins to officially write online novels in 2022, thinking about how far the novels she writes are from higher quality, and how to express the female value she wants to convey through stories.
Paper Tiger's work "The First Sick Seedling in the Xiuzhen World" is a work selected for the list, with a relaxed and humorous language style, fresh and cute, telling the story of the modern emotional blogger Lin Du who crossed over to the sick seedling in the Xiuzhen Realm and saved the "love brain" in the division at the request of the system. The jury experts believe that in addition to highlighting the protagonist's "big heroine" characteristics of being brilliant, high-spirited, witty and cunning, the work also depicts a vivid and sensible group portrait of the supporting characters. As a young up-and-coming writer, Paper Tiger is both scared and encouraged to be recognized. She admits that the novel is actually a process from Lin Du "thinking it was a journey to cross people" to realizing that "this is a self-crossing journey" and then to "I am here to cross people and cross myself", the protagonist has pieced together a complete self while piecing together the people around her, and the companions around her have also given her a stable and strong backing and environment.
Despite this, Paper Tiger felt that he was still far from being fully plumped up with each character, and that he needed to strengthen his pen strength, just as for many writers, the award will always be just a stop on the creative road, and the future direction and the next new book will become their new obsession. Paper Tiger has its own ideas about the expression of feminism in online literature, and the current display of women's situation in online articles often appears in the form of oppression and resistance, and most of them are awakened by the strength of the heroine alone, and most of the current situation of feminism itself is still raising questions and discussing the situation, and she tries to find a channel to open up the collective upward movement of women under the premise of respecting history and the law of development of productive forces. Where is the channel? How do you present this core in the form of a story? Now, these are the questions she struggles with every day.
Compared with many authors, the insecticide team members are a "legend" who quickly promoted from a rookie author to a circle-breaking king. "The End of Ten Days", which began to be on the Tomato Novel platform at the end of 2022, has now accumulated 30 million readers, with more than 400,000 readers scoring 9.8, and 3 million people chasing more every day.
A member of the insecticide team
The road to "becoming a god with a book" always seems to be smooth, but only you know what you have experienced. When he wrote his first novel, "The Legend Bureau", the members of the pesticide team only earned 3 cents a day for more than half a year, and even then he did not stop changing. When asked if he thought about giving up halfway through, he said, "I've got to finish the story." "The early readers of "Legend Administration" were relatively small, and when they wrote more than 1 million words to prepare for the finale, the readers suddenly began to grow exponentially. He did not choose to lengthen the story, but ended it decisively, and then prepared for about half a year before he began to write "The End of the Ten Days". Now that "The End of the Ten Days" has been well received by the general public, he still goes back and revises some of the original chapters. Perhaps it is this competitive attitude that makes what seems impossible to others possible. Where's the next one? The members of the pest control team already have his plans, and when he talks about the subject matter he wants to try, even if he is a little tired due to the long-term serialization and the pressure of the recent finish, his eyes suddenly have a playful and excited light. Perhaps for online literature, which does not have too many rules, interest is the best teacher.
Each generation of young people has their own unique vision and pursuit, and it is these "uniqueness" that continue to provide fresh blood for online literature, and also make online literature a real, energetic, and close to the concept of young people. Xie Sipeng, editor-in-chief of Tomato Novels, observed in his own work that the innate sense of the Internet of "Generation Z" has brought more vivid, sensitive, cutting-edge, and courageous spirit to online literature, and themes such as national tide, farming, intangible cultural heritage, and new workplaces continue to emerge, which not only reflects the mentality of young people today, but also becomes a window to show the positive style of the new generation of young people. In 2023, 57% of the original signed authors of Tomato Novels are post-95s, and the new generation of writers has become the backbone of online literary creation. He said that the "Peak Story Project" of Tomato Novels launched at this press conference is to stimulate the imagination of young people and continue to promote the creativity and influence of "Chinese original content".
Reading is a joy to do, and so should research
The creation of online literature is active, and the new force of "Generation Z" continues to emerge, and at the same time, the youth review research team has never left the scene. They are keenly and courageously "entering the game", not afraid of prejudices, not afraid of the research difficulties brought about by the millions of words that are constantly updated and the fierce market cleansing, while maintaining timely presence, and patiently cultivating more new research talents in the academy.
He Yufei
He Yufei, a lecturer at Central South University born in 1989, has been focusing on the research of cross-media narratives and online genre novels in online literature. He Yufei officially decided to study online literature in 2009, when she read "Breaking the Sky" every day, and after all, she no longer just regarded online literature as a leisure book. She discussed with her supervisor the topic of online literature as the topic of her graduation thesis, and was affirmed and encouraged, from a postdoctoral fellow to a university teacher, all the way to today, and now she also serves as the vice chairman of the Changsha Network Writers Association and a member of the presidium of the Hunan Network Writers Association.
He Yufei took the students to carry out the "Internet Literature Afternoon Tea" activity
According to He Yufei's observation, today's college students are very fond of online literature, and many students choose topics related to online literature for their graduation theses every year, including novel genres, IP adaptations, virtual idols, overseas communication, artificial intelligence and other different directions. She set up online literature related courses in school, organized a group of students who like online literature to make comments, first conducted the annual inventory of Hunan online literature, and later selected some writers for interviews. There will be students who surprise her every year, and she can also feel the real teaching and learning in the communication with the students: "It is worth mentioning that several of my students are online writers signed by the website, and their graduation thesis is a research on the creation mode and writing skills of genre novels, and they are very expert in writing, which also gives me a lot of inspiration." ”
In addition, He Yufei followed Ouyang Youquan for 10 consecutive years of follow-up research on literary websites, and in this process, she deeply experienced the generational change and genre evolution of literary websites. "On the one hand, online reality novels have risen strongly, and the combination of themes such as poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, youth entrepreneurship and career choice, and genre elements such as ability, farming, traversal, rebirth, and systems is like a chemical reaction, producing a 'network sense' that belongs to online literature in this era. On the other hand, the popularity of genres such as Reiki Revival Stream, Steady Stream, Weird Stream, and Brain Cave Essay reflects the innovation and iterative ability of online literature. She believes that one of the main reasons for the rapid evolution of the genre of online literature is the generational change of online writers, which requires them to do on-site research, researchers cannot have a dialogue with the industry without reading the latest online novels, and at the same time, the innovation of the works of the new generation of writers found in the research often brings surprises, which is where the youthful charm of online literature lies.
Ji Yunfei, an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, is a well-known "child who grew up secretly reading online literature" in the circle, began to "indulge" in online novels in 2005, and after being admitted to the Chinese Department of Peking University in 2011, he followed his teacher Shao Yanjun to study online literature courses, and began to do online literature related research in his senior year, and it has been ten years now. He has been participating in the second online literature youth list since then, and is currently working with his sister Xiao Yingxuan, who is an associate researcher at the School of Literature of Shandong University, to bring in students from Peking University, Shandong University and Sun Yat-sen University, and guide them to do the selection and interview work of the list. In the process of taking students, he can feel that they read a lot of online novels, and most of them are read out of interest. Ji Yunfei often learns a lot of new knowledge from his students, but he does not ask them to continue to study for a doctorate and do research, after all, academics are still a difficult road, and there are also requirements for personal temperament: "Reading is a happy thing, and research should also be." ”
The students in Ji Yunfei's online literature class
By participating in the youth list, Ji Yunfei took the students to interview the pen of the two sleeps for three days, the grenade is afraid of water, why is the love worse, and the fox tail, and each time he gained a lot, and these writers updated their original literary experience and even concepts. "As a new field of creation and research, online literature can be driven freely, which is both a benefit and a trouble, which means that you can't see the future clearly, and everything still needs to be explored and tried. On the whole, online literature has changed a lot in recent years, but it is going in a good direction, and new works and new authors are getting better and better. Every time I come across a good work, I am still very excited. He also hopes that his research work and interview process can bring some inspiration to the writers and form a two-way effective communication.
Whether it is a creator or a researcher, a generation has the youth of a generation, and a generation will also have the "peak" of a generation. Online literature carries countless possibilities for the younger generation, and despite the rapid changes in the world, more influential "new stories" will continue to emerge with unique narrative styles and rich cultural connotations. Where are we going to take literature together? Where are we going to follow literature? The answer is still in our own hands.
Editor: Liu Ya
Second trial: Zhang Junping
Third trial: Wang Yang