The 20-year history of China's online literature: Oriental culture and China concepts are the main line, and content is the core

No matter how popular IP is, content innovation is still the core link of the Internet cultural industry chain, and its foundation is the vitality and cultural value of the work.

Original title: From the rankings, online literature changes, content innovation is the core of the cultural industry chain.

In the development process of online literature in the past 20 years, there are several important nodes that cannot be ignored. Their emergence marks the gradual transformation of online literature from grassroots to mainstream. The direction of evolution. In 2008, the China Writers Association, China Writers Publishing Group and Chinese Online jointly conducted a 10-year inventory of online literature; in 2015 and 2016, the Internet Literature Committee of the China Writers Association and China Writers Network jointly launched the China Online Literature Ranking. If the "10-year inventory" is a superficial search and discovery, the establishment of the "China Online Literature Rankings" is a thorough exploration and exploration. Starting from these two dimensions, we can roughly observe the evolution process of online literature in the past 20 years. After necessary sorting and summary, we can obtain the basic materials for constructing the evaluation system of online literature, and further explore the possibility of classics of online literature.

Oriental culture and the concept of China are the main lines of the evolution and development of online literature

. The commercialization of online literature began when the Chinese website implemented the VIP fee-based reading model in 2004, and online literature entered the era of online serialization of novels. Prior to this, online literature was mainly Internet surfing for literature lovers. The main publications published online by Annie Baby, Li Xunhuan, Ning Caishen and Xing Yusen were short and medium stories. Today's "The Legend of Wukong" did not even have 100,000 words. Jiangnan's "The Youth Here" only had 120,000 words, but it became extremely popular on the Internet and had widespread influence. This phenomenon never appeared again after the four major categories of fantasy, Xianxia, urban and historical became the mainstream types of online literature. Mobile reading was all the rage in 2010, and ultra-long novels gradually became the mainstream of online literature. It is not difficult to find from the works on the "China Internet Literature Rankings" that fantasy works are basically more than 4 million words, and urban and historical works are also mostly more than 2 million words.

Oriental culture and the concept of China have always been a main thread in the evolution and development of online literature. For example, Xiao Ding's early "Zhu Xian", Yan Lisheng's "Tian Xingjian" and Mao Li's "Celebrating the Years","Buddha is the Tao", Liu Lianzi's "The Legend of Zhen Huan in the Harem", and a large number of recent works such as Sword Snow Stride "," Snow Eagle Lord "," Ancient Immortal Dome "and" Blood Song Xing "all have obvious traces of being born in Chinese classical literature. These works have had an important influence on the growth of online literature and should be said to be the mainstream of online literature. The difference is that with the subdivision of readers, online novels have become more and more detailed in genre classification in recent years, and dozens of small types called "flow,""literature" and "schools" have emerged. For example, China's ancient scientific and technological inventions and creations, traditional Chinese medicine culture, ancient food culture, and cultural relics, calligraphy and painting appreciation have all been reproduced in online literature in the form of stories, providing readers with rich reading options.

Content innovation is the core link of the Internet cultural industry chain

. Since 2008, online literature has gradually changed from a business model that relied solely on users to pay for reading to "with IP (intellectual property rights) as the core, the entire industry chain and all-media operations." The main forms of copyright development are movies, TV series, online dramas (including online TV and micro movies), games, animations, audiobooks, stage dramas (including dramas, operas, etc.), reality shows, derivatives, etc. Cultural entertainment forms. Internet literature IP development reached a new peak in 2015.

However, no matter how popular IP is, content innovation is still the core link of the Internet cultural industry chain, which is fundamentally the vitality and cultural value of the work. Only by constantly innovating and improving quality can online literature sit firmly in the upstream position of the Internet cultural industry chain. It can be seen that the foundation of online literature IP lies in the high-quality content, and exploring a win-win situation between entertainment and classics is a difficult road. Judging from the current situation, the Internet literature IP boom can be said to be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it has indeed brought doubled benefits to online writers compared with the past, and has also opened up a new and bright future for literary websites. Road; on the other hand, the rush to rush into action and focus on immediate commercial profit-seeking behavior has led to the spread of the homogenization phenomenon of online literature, with a large number of works following the trend, being similar, and lacking new ideas. Insufficient innovation and routine writing are the most serious problems found during the review process of the "China Online Literature Rankings".

Since 2014, reality-themed online novels have shown obvious signs of returning, and fantasy works are no longer the only one. They are specifically reflected in the fact that the creative themes cover reform process, social hotspots, life changes, cultural inheritance, careers, personal struggles, etc. In terms of excellent works filled with the flavor of life and the times, the "China Online Literature Rankings" promptly reflect this change. Different from traditional paper-based novels, the writing of reality in online novels is divided into two categories. One is the technical flow with obvious professional writing characteristics, such as "Notes of the Hypnotist","Crosstalk Master","Investment Bank Men and Women", etc. The other is the flow of consciousness that mixes the virtual world in reality with humanistic spirit, such as "Going Back to the Past and Becoming a Cat","The Counterattack of a Ordinary Man","Genius Photographer","Da Bao Jian","I Have Special Communication Skills", etc. Other works that focus on reality, such as "Ode to Joy" and "Translator", have also been popular among readers.

The "China Online Literature Rankings" also revealed an interesting phenomenon. In recent years, fantasy novels have begun to take on the ground and no longer blindly rely on "fighting monsters and upgrading" to attract attention. Works such as "Arcane God","Shan Hai Jing·Yingtu Ji","Biohacker", and "RED God of War Evolution" combine modern technology and traditional culture to find a foundation for "thought" for fantasy. In addition, the flow of life has also become an auxiliary means for online literature to pay attention to reality. For example, new work types such as the food articles "Chef Be Self-reliant" and "Food Brocade" and the medical stream "Medical Fragrance" have received varying degrees of attention.

Promoting the mainstreaming of online literature

So far, the "China Online Literature Rankings" has been published 6 times with a total of 12 lists, and every work on the list has undergone strict selection. This list is different from the rankings established by online literature companies based on commercial standards, and from the rankings of academic institutions that focus on the nature of text research. It is a professional team of literary theory criticism organized by the China Writers Association. It adheres to the principles of "national specifications, government standards, network characteristics, and public aesthetics." It should be said that under the premise of fully considering market reflection, pay more attention to the artistic value and ideological level of the work. In other words, an important purpose of establishing the "China Online Literature Rankings" is to promote the mainstreaming of online literature and provide readers with excellent online reading materials through strict selection.

From a development perspective, the mainstreaming of online literature is not only a demand of online literature itself, but also a demand of the times and a historical necessity. It is the general trend of the development of contemporary literature. Promoting the mainstreaming of online literature does not require online literature to follow the path of traditional paper literature, but that the creative spirit that not only maintains the characteristics of online literature but also faces "reality" is the right path for the long-term development of online literature.

Of course, it must also be noted that the communication methods and survival forms of online literature are still constantly changing and upgrading. From online writing to new media communication, from digital publishing to IP operations, from work content to expression forms to aesthetic standards, are also changing. All in all, with the rapid development of Internet technology, readers 'interests are constantly being renovated, and new works are emerging one after another. All of these have brought certain difficulties to us in exploring the creative laws of online literature. But because of this, theoretical research and literary criticism must go deep into online literature, build a new theoretical system and critical discourse, and fully reveal the problems existing in the selection of themes, artistic language, expression techniques, cultural perspectives and value systems in online literary works. At the same time, new literary elements with contemporary characteristics in online literary works are actively promoted and encouraged. From this point of view, the "China Online Literature Rankings" has both symbolic significance and practical functions. It can be said to be a long-term and indispensable one.

Editor: Nancy