The annual output value of online literature is 9 billion yuan Experts remind: It cannot be measured entirely in money

On the 11th, the third China Online Literature Forum was held in Nanjing. Online writers and editors from the China Writers Association, provincial and municipal writers associations, and major literary websites gathered in Nanjing to exchange and discuss new situations and trends in online literature. Everyone's consensus is that online literature has gone through 20 years and its achievements are obvious to all, but its problems have become increasingly prominent. It is immersed in fantasy and transcendence, has weak aesthetic ability, and is led by the nose by capital. Online literature urgently needs to improve its social responsibility and cultural responsibility.

Original title: Online literature cannot be measured entirely by money

. On the 11th, the third China Online Literature Forum was held in Nanjing. Online writers, editors and critics from the China Writers Association, provincial and municipal writers associations, and major literary websites gathered in Nanjing to exchange and discuss new situations and trends in online literature. Everyone's consensus is that online literature has gone through 20 years and its achievements are obvious to all, but its problems have become increasingly prominent. It is immersed in fantasy and transcendence, has weak aesthetic ability, and is led by the nose by capital. Online literature urgently needs to improve its social responsibility and cultural responsibility.

The annual output value of online literature has reached 9 billion yuan,

"Nirvana in Fire","Flowers Thousand Bones","Ode to Joy","Legend of Mi Yue"... Behind a large wave of hit dramas, there is an IP for online literature. State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television Cheng Xiaolong, deputy director of the Network Supervision Division of the Digital Publishing Department, said that at the end of last year, the number of online literature users reached 333 million, and the domestic output value of online literature reached 9 billion yuan. In 2016, the number of resident authors on 40 key online literature websites exceeded 17.6 million, the total number of works reached 14.548 million, and the number of works reached 1.75 million.

In the field of online literature, Jiangsu can be said to be a strong force. According to Fan Xiaoqing, chairman of the Provincial Writers Association, there are currently more than 20,000 Jiangsu online writers registered on major literary websites across the country, more than 1,000 front-line key contracted online authors, and more than 30 god-level writers. There are also many writers working on Baidu Literature, Zongheng Chinese Network, 17K Novel Network, Zhangyue Literature and other literary websites are in a leading position. At the end of 2013, the China Writers Association screened the list of online writers provided by the 28 most influential literary websites in the country, forming a list of 622 national key online writers. In this list, 65 online writers currently live in Jiangsu. A large number of god-level online writers such as Dancing, I Eat Tomatoes, Forgetting Words, Innocence, Angel Oscar, Fangxiang, World Returns, and Stone Octopus have long been active on the front line of online literature. In addition, a large number of new online writers are constantly emerging, and together they constitute the brilliant starry sky of Jiangsu's online literature. According to incomplete statistics, Jiangsu online literature members completed a total of 90 literary works of various types in 2016 alone, and more than 200 long-form works are being serialized on major literary websites. Ten works, including the Devil's Law, the Imperial Power's Change of the World, the Young Royal Guards, and the Junlin World, are developing the game industry, producing animation, etc., realizing the multi-copyright transformation of online literature IP. Based on the strong strength of Jiangsu's online literature, the Jiangsu Academy of Online Literature was announced on the forum.

Online literature needs to improve aesthetic taste

A few years ago, the famous writer Mai Jia's sentence "I think that 99.99% of current online literature is garbage" stung the hearts of countless online writers and touched the cruel reality of the development of online literature in China. Online literature has experienced nearly 20 years of barbaric growth, and its current audience is extremely large. However, it is an indisputable fact that the good and the bad are mixed, and some critics have even questioned: When we talk about online literature, are we really talking about literature?

"While we are talking about literature, online writers are talking about IP." Faced with the reality that online literature is being carried away by capital, Professor He Ping of Nanjing Normal University said,"In extreme terms, there has never been an era like today's Internet era that produces so many mediocre or even junk literature." Individual 'free publication' does not really realize personalized writing, and many works even degenerate into banal copying and writing shelters. At this time, we have reason to ask: where is the poetic norm and poetic bottom line of today's network literature? If this problem is not solved, China's online literature will not have a real future."

Wu Changqing, a member of the Internet Literature and Art Committee of the China Literary Critics Association, gave reporters a review of the development track of China's online literature. He believes that in the infancy of online literature, the author team is often composed of young literary and artistic people and literary elites who are the first to come into contact with the Internet, paying more attention to literary aesthetics and cultural responsibility. Around 2003 was a watershed. With the rise of the charging model, online literature gradually evolved into an industry, literature became a means to get rich, and the audience also evolved into teenagers who were on the Internet. In order to cater to such a readership, online writers have become keen on fantasy, travel, tomb robbery, fighting monsters, games and other themes, and they have become increasingly intense. In recent years, many writers have been keen on concocting IP, expecting their works to be "favored" by film and television tycoons all day long, and gaining both fame and fortune overnight.

"The reason why I write online novels, frankly speaking, is to make money." In an interview with reporters, several big Internet literature celebrities made no secret about their creative motives,"In our circle, no one regards themselves as writers. The word writer is 'too sentimental.' Writing is a profession for us. It is every online writer's dream to discover works as IP." In the eyes of online writers, the craftsman spirit of traditional writers that "ten years to sharpen a sword" seems to be a pedantic joke. Their writing speed is 6,000 words or even more than 10,000 words per hour!

"Internet writers must effectively improve their literary literacy and appreciate the warmth and tranquility of society on the basis of taking root in reality." Wu Changqing emphasized,"Readers 'aesthetic taste must also be improved. They must gradually get out of the boundless fantasy and truly enhance the sense of history and reality. Only in this way can they' force 'online writers to continue the tradition of edifying, reviewing, and carrying the Tao of literature, strengthen the awareness of fine works, and truly create classic and excellent online literary works."

Online literature urgently needs to strengthen its cultural responsibility.

"A few days ago, someone showed me something to see. I saw that it was all traveled back and forth in the past 100 years." At the forum, Li Jingze, vice chairman and secretary of the Secretariat of the China Writers Association, said,"This is not called engaging in literature, it is called breaking people's hearts."

In Li Jingze's view, good literary works must have social and cultural responsibilities, be based on the mainstream values of the times, and move from literary consciousness to cultural consciousness: "I think everyone must remember this sentence, that is, when we write history, We can have a broad imagination space and we can approach history in various ways that suit our popular culture types, but we must always keep a red line in our hearts: Firmly clear why we approach history-that is to tell people the most valuable things in history. Writers cannot simply 'consume' history, and cannot adopt a very frivolous and disrespectful attitude towards history. To be fair, this unhealthy phenomenon is sometimes prominent in our online literature."

From the "poetry expresses aspirations" in the Spring and Autumn Period, the "literature conveys Tao" in the Tang Dynasty, to the aspirations of new literary standard-bearers such as Liang Qichao and Lu Xun during the May 4th Movement, who wanted to "improve mass governance" and realize the ambition of "new people" through literary means, the development process of China literature has always been connected with society, culture, and the people. At present, online literature has become an indispensable part of the contemporary literary landscape. Online literature and the industries such as film and television dramas, animation, and mobile games derived from IP are creating an unprecedentedly broad "cultural space" shared by "all people". In this case, the possibility and necessity of online literature participating in cultural construction have reached an unprecedented level.

So, how should online literature achieve cultural and social responsibility? Li Jingze emphasized that the quality of online literature cannot be measured entirely by money. Writers must learn to say "no": say no to temporary benefits, say no to capital kidnapping, say no to exaggeration, say no to vulgar and kitsch hype, Say no to the vulgar behavior of forgetting righteousness in the eyes of profit. Writers must not use money alone to measure the value of their works. They must seriously consider the social effects of their works and cherish their social image. Today, the industrialization development of culture, including the industrialization operation of IP, is an inevitable law for the development of modern cultural industries, which is no problem in itself. However, literature is a "human study" and a special spiritual production. It has its high degree of particularity and cannot blindly follow the market. This is the same all over the world. The faster the industry develops, the more clear-headed employees must remain.

Editor: yvette