Faculty of Arts Department of Chinese Studies
Master’s thesis
2020 Bc. Kateřina Mašková
Faculty of Arts Department of Chinese Studies
Fantasy Genres of Chinese Internet Literature
Master’s thesis
Bc. Kateřina Mašková
Supervisor: Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D. 2020
I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and it contains no other materials written or published by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis.
Brno, 31st of May, 2020 …………………………..
ABSTRACT The main focus of this thesis are the contemporary genres of Chinese Internet fantasy literature, namely qihuan, xuanhuan, and xiuxian. Generally speaking, Chinese fantasy genres fuse elements of Western fantasy with elements of traditional Chinese culture and enjoy mass popularity both in China and abroad. The Chinese Internet literature developed into widespread phenomenon, with its own terminology and specifics. Therefore, one of the goals of this thesis is to provide a basic introduction of the Chinese Internet literature discourse to the Western reader, with the description of relevant terms and brief overview of its history. The main goal is then to introduce and analyse above mentioned fantasy genres, and related terms, and to answer research questions: What are the narrative conventions of three Internet fantasy genres qihuan, xuanhuan, and xiuxian? How are the terms used by its readers? Does the concept of genre transform within the Internet literature discourse? This will be done based on analysis of three Internet fantasy novels – Panlong (Coiling Dragon), Douluo Dalu (Soul Land), and Xianni (Renegade Immortal), along with the analysis of relevant fan-made online content.
Keywords: Internet literature, Chinese fantasy, genre fiction, xuanhuan
Acknowledgments
My biggest thanks belongs to my supervisor Dr. Dušan Vávra – without his patience, support, brainstorming sessions, and advice this thesis would not exist. Another acknowledgment goes to my family and friends, who all put up with my fatigue, and provided much needed encouragement and support. I would especially like to thank Elis, as she was always willing to listen and to help with the google searches, when my brain refused to function anymore. Another thanks to my roommates, who always brought snacks (and beer). And my last thanks goes to the holy trinity of all students – the coffee, the pasta, and the Internet.
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...... 7
METHODOLOGY ...... 8
RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 9
1. PART 1 ...... 9
1.1. Internet Literature in China - Introduction...... 9
1.2. History of Internet literature in China - Brief Overview ...... 20
1.3. Important Terms Relevant to the Internet Literature Discourse ...... 22
1.3.1. YY Literature/Fiction...... 22
1.3.2. Shuang 爽 - “Coolness/Thrill/High” ...... 25
1.3.3. Xiaobai 小白 versus Wenqing 文青 ...... 27
2. PART 2 ...... 30
2.1. Genre in Chinese Internet Literature ...... 30
2.2. Terms Relevant to Internet Genre Fiction ...... 44
2.2.1. Jiakong 架空 − ‘Overhead’ ...... 44
2.2.2. Chuanyue 穿越 − Transmigration or ‘Time-travel’ ...... 50
2.2.3. Chongsheng 重生 − ‘Rebirth’ ...... 56
2.2.4. Chuanyue and Chongsheng – Analysis and Conclusions ...... 60
2.3. Chinese “Fantasy” Internet Literature Genres ...... 63
2.3.1. Qihuan 奇幻...... 65
2.3.2. Xuanhuan 玄幻 ...... 68
2.3.3. Xiuxian 修仙 ...... 73
2.3.4. Novels’ Analysis, Comparison and Conclusions ...... 77
CONCLUSION ...... 89
REFERENCES ...... 93
Primary sources ...... 93
Secondary literature ...... 95
INTRODUCTION
This master’s thesis deals with the topic of Internet literature in (Mainland) China. Internet literature is a phenomenon, which first started to spread among Chinese citizens during the 1990’s. During that time, the literary enthusiasts started to explore a newly emerged creative space – the Internet. Since then, the Internet literature has turned into a great industry on a scale, which has no alternative in the West. The Internet literature has introduced innovative forms, themes, aesthetics, and practices into modern Chinese literature, and despite the initial negative evaluation of this type of works by the academics and literary critics, it has been enjoying widespread popularity among Chinese people for over 20 years. Even though it has been influenced by foreign works, most of the Internet fiction genres have roots in the traditional Chinese literature, and the 20th century popular fiction wuxia 武侠 – the martial arts novel. However, the scholarly interest remains largely disproportional to the size of its readership so far. This work thematically connects to my bachelor’s thesis from 2017, where I analysed the existence of wuxia topoi in the contemporary xuanhuan fiction. The goals I have set for my master’s thesis are a bit broader, as I aim to provide a basic introduction of the Chinese Internet literature discourse to the Western reader, and to conduct an analysis and comparison of the contemporary Internet fantasy genres. Therefore, the thesis is divided in two parts: The first part will provide an introduction to the topic of Internet literature in China based on secondary literature, along with the brief overview of Internet literature’s history and the trends’ development from 1990’s to approx. 2014. Also, key terms related to the discourse will be described, again based on secondary literature with the additional information from the Internet forums discussing Chinese Internet literature. The second part will be based on the work with primary sources, in this case the Internet novels, fan forums, relevant websites and YouTube channels, and their comparison with the approaches and genre descriptions conducted by other scholars. Firstly, I will discuss the topic of the genre fiction in Chinese Internet literature, which influence comes from two main directions – the traditional Chinese fiction and the literary medium – cyberspace. Therefore, I will first analyse the sources of the contemporary Internet genre in the traditional Chinese literature, and then analyse the existing methods of genre categorization among the readers and publishers. Next important topic also revolves around the terminology, as I will discuss and describe recurrent topics in the Internet genre fiction with the help of secondary literature, which will be followed by
an analysis of those topics in exemplary novels. In the last part of my thesis, the fantasy genres of Chinese Internet literature will be discussed. Due to certain discrepancies between the usage of the genre terminology in the academia and in practice, said genres will firstly be described according to the secondary literature, followed by my own analysis based predominantly on the primary sources – in this case, the three Internet fantasy novels Douluo Dalu 斗罗大陆, Panlong 盘龙, and Xianni 仙逆, along with the discussion and entries by the fans of the genre on online forums and YouTube.
METHODOLOGY
This thesis main goal is to introduce and analyse three fantasy genres of Chinese Internet literature – qihuan, xuanhuan, and xiuxian. This will be done for the bigger part on basis of analysis of exemplary novels. For each genre, I have selected one novel on basis of its general popularity among its readers, both in China and abroad. The selected novels are:
- Panlong 盘龙 (Coiling Dragon) (2008) from author Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi 我吃泗洪是 for qihuan 奇幻. - Douluo Dalu 斗罗大陆 (Soul Land) (2008) from author Tang Jia San Shao 唐家三少 for xuanhuan 玄幻. - Xianni 仙逆 (Renegade Immortal) (2012) from author Er Gen 耳根 for xiuxian 修仙.
For the analysis of chosen topics and terms related to Chinese Internet genre fiction, various exemplary xiaobai 小白 and danmei 耽美 novels were chosen, whose complete list can be found in the references. With regards to real-life usage of the terminology, I will analyse relevant primary sources, such as online (fan) literary forums on relevant websites – Douban, Jinjiang Literature City, Novel Updates, Qidian, Readlightnovel, Wuxiaworld, and Zongheng, along with videos from YouTube channels dedicated to this topic. However, the discussion of previously conducted research will not be omitted from my thesis, as I will consult available secondary literature dealing with Chinese Internet literature. Here, I would like to highlight the work of Professor Shao Yanjun, who published three books about Internet literature on basis of her 5-years-long research (Wangluo Shidaide Wenxue Yindu 网络时 代的文学引渡 [2015], Wangluo Wenxue Jingdian Jiedu 网络文学经典解读 [2016], Wangluo Wenhua Guanjianci 网络文化关键词 [2018]), and which provided the theoretical basis for my
8 own research. Another such publication is the doctoral thesis from Sheila Chao Desire and Fantasy Online (2013), where she conducts an empirical research of the literary website Qidian, on which basis she provides an overview of commercial mechanisms of Internet literature in China, along with textual analysis of chosen published texts.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- What are the narrative conventions of three Internet ‘fantasy’ genres qihuan, xuanhuan, xiuxian? - What are the differences among qihuan, xuanhuan, xiuxian? Is it possible to give viable definitions of these three genres? - How are the terms – qihuan, xuanhuan, xiuxian – used by its readers? - What are the shared characteristics of Chinese Internet fantasy? - Does the concept of genre transform within the Internet literature discourse? How?
1. PART 1
1.1. Internet Literature in China - Introduction Internet literature (wangluo wenxue 网络文学) in China is a type of literature that has spread massively among Chinese citizens in the past ten years. It is a phenomenon that is specific to East Asian societies, and “has no real equivalent of the same scale and scope in Western countries” (Hockx 2015, 4). Although currently being over 20 years in existence, it has been paid a little attention among Chinese and foreign scholars in proportion to how widely it has spread among the Chinese netizens. This is mostly due to the fact that such literature is usually considered being ‘pulp fiction’ of low quality with little to no literary value. However, the number of Chinese netizens reached over 800 million in 2018 and is estimated to reach around 975 million in 20231. In 2012, the number of readers was 202.67 million, amounting to 39.5 percent of netizens in China, out of which 55.5 percent is between ages of 20 to 40, thus indicating its popularity among young people (Jing, 2012). With the sheer number of people within the Internet literature community, readers and writers alike, one cannot simply ignore the significance of this phenomenon and its impact on Chinese society. Moreover, due to its use of new literary medium and production model, Internet literature becomes more and more intertwined with other areas of cultural production,
1 Information published on the Statista website. Available from:
“In the near future, the concept of "web literature" should no longer exist. On the contrary, the concept of "paper literature" will be used more and more. Because as the "dominant medium", the Internet will be a platform for all literary and literary forms” (2015, 6).
In China, the tradition of print-based literature is much longer than in the West, although the beginning of print literature in the “post-Gutenberg” sense can be traced to the late 19th century,
10 when the arrival of new printing technologies from the West caused a significant transformation in the print culture (Reed 2010, 6). The modern literary tradition in China was mostly established in the early 20th century under the May 4th New Literature Movement (xinwenxue yundong 新闻 学运动). Access to the information and the technology has been for the most of the 20th century regulated by the state (Reed 2010, 24), and the printing establishment controlled by the government was again reconfigured in 80’s and the 90’s, “first by computerization and then by the Internet, producing ever-newer postmodern forms of texts along with redefined author-audience relationships” (2010, 24). In this case, the central position of traditional literary production mechanism in China is occupied by the literary journals (wenxue qikan 文学期刊), which in the past years were the main tool that helped to enforce the government-controlled model of literary production. China’s first literary journals were published in 19th century, although their first true spread began after 1910, namely around intellectual groups based in Shanghai. The majority of the works produced during the Republican era were first published in such journals. They were periodical subscriptions which at the given time served mainly as a kind of a “virtual meeting place” and took important part in building author (contributor) - reader community. A vital position was taken up by the journal editors, which were seen as ‘authors’ of each issue of the journal as a whole (Hockx 2004, 105- 111). After 1949, most of the published journals were so-called ‘serious journals’, underlined by the government’s efforts to eliminate popular entertainment literature, and promote such works that have certain moralistic and ideological tendencies. Therefore, literary journals played a crucial role in the cultural establishment of the socialist regime, as they served as an official venue for the writers to publish their works. The editors of these journals thus became “the liaisons between the Party and the writers”, as they were always government employees (Kong 2002, 93-99). In this context, the literary journals have three main functions: they are the main channel for communication of ideology; they serve as means of education, thus improving the level and quality of literature; and they aid with the cultivation of writers and forming writers associations (Shao 2015, 4-5). The problem with such model lays in its aging readership and obsoleteness, since it largely ignores popular demand, and it also never underwent the marketization process that took place in the ‘popular journals’ which emerged during the 80’s, and also in the rest of the society during the late 20th century. For this reason, printed literature in China came into crisis. The relationship between the two most important segments of literary production − producers (writers) and consumers (readers) − is therefore influenced by the literary journal editors and the literary publishers, which often have a direct say in which works and articles are going to
11 be put in print. The status of author in the field of print literature is therefore somehow sacred − the authors need to overcome an obstacle in form of convincing the publisher and editor that his or her work is worthy of investing resources in. Thus, the marker of successful writer is the number of copies sold. Terminologically speaking, the writers of print-based system are usually referred to as ‘authors’ (zuojia 作家), and those being active on the Internet are referred to as ‘writers’ (xieshou 写手), which again hints at the elevated cultural status of the traditional writers, whereas Internet writers tend to be considered on the lower level in terms of quality of their works (Hockx 2015, 5). Chinese Internet literature is international in its origin, and the first works in Chinese appeared in online newsletters, magazines and groups run by Chinese students overseas (Yang 2010, 334). When internet arrived in China in 1994, it is safe to say it significantly transformed many aspects of the creative industry, literary field included. To provide a single, clear definition for Internet literature proved to be an issue among the scholars so far. It is important to separate Internet literature from ‘online’, ‘digitalized’ or ‘electronic’ literary works that might include literature previously published in print and subsequently made available online. I decided to use the direct translation of Chinese wangluo wenxue 网络文学 − Internet literature, instead of the term online literature, because I think it better reflects the fact that this kind of literature is completely web-based. This means that its production base, publishing process and reading medium are all placed on the web. As Shao says:
“Internet literature does not mean all literature published and spread on the Internet, but literature produced on the Internet. In other words, the network is not only a publishing platform, but also a production space. [...] Internet literature is "hypertext", which is composed of "networks" of "node links", and the destination of the link can lead to the inside or to another "hypertext" outside. Network technology makes "hypertext" infinitely open and fluid” (2015, 126).
She emphasizes the openness of the text (wenben 文本) to the authors’ and readers’ infinite interpretations, which is put in contrast to paper-based literature. Hockx in his book Internet Literature in China (2015) provides a similar definition:
“So what, then, is Internet literature in China? [...] It is Chinese-language writing, either in established literary genres or in innovative literary forms, written especially for publication in an interactive online context and meant to be read on -screen” (2015, 4).
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Guobin Yang, on the other hand, stresses the fact that Chinese Internet literature encompasses wider array of works than the traditional print literature:
“Chinese internet literature thus includes works that are clearly “literary” and others that are not. A blog entry may or may not be literature, depending on how it is viewed by its author and readers. What counts as internet literature is thus a matter of social construction” (2010, 333).
The Internet literature is based on fan economy (fensi jingji 粉丝经济), which creates a reader-centric environment, where the reader can have a direct influence on the creative process and final appearance of the work. This aspect of Internet literature is stressed by Xiang Ren in his research paper Chinese Online Literature - Creative Consumers and Evolving Business Models (2012), where he describes the Internet literature in China as a fan-generated phenomenon:
“It is mainly comprised of original serialised fiction, written by amateur writers for communities of fellow enthusiasts and intended for digital distribution. Although online literature began as a popular grassroots movement that was largely free from commercial ambition among either authors or website operators, as audiences have grown wider and processes of economic reform have deepened, a formal online literature industry has begun to emerge” (2012, 118).
The desires and wishes of the audience occupy a central position in the production process. “Some people call it ‘economics of love’. The fans are both ‘excessive consumers’ (guodude xiaofeizhe 过度的消费者) and ‘active producers’ (jijide zizishengchangzhe 积极的意义生产者). They are not only the people that author’s livelihood relies upon, but also think tanks, and their kith and kin, forming an ‘emotional community’ (qinggan gongtongti 情感共同体) with the author” (Shao 2015, 128). The term ‘economics of love (youaide jingjixue 有爱的经济学)’ is a good term for illustration of the importance of cultivating a good fanbase for the Internet writers. The audience thus makes an integral part of the fan economy, and they become prosumers (chanxiaozhe 产销者). The word prosumer2 is a combination of words producer and consumer and refers to the participation of readers on the creation process (2015, 59), and the term presents a good way to characterize the role readers fill within the Internet literature ecosystem. Ren uses the term ‘creative user community’ to describe such environment. When talking about ‘literary text’ in a traditional sense, the force it has towards its audience is centripetal. On the other hand, ‘hypertext’
2 The term ‘prosumer’ was originally used by Alvin Toffler in his book The Third Wave (1980). 13 has more of a centrifugal tendency. In other words, traditional literary works are author-centred, whereas the hypertextual works produced on the Internet are all very ‘reader-centric’ − the audience often has a direct influence on the production process, because the author actually takes into account readers’ comments and wishes. Hypertextuality (chaowenbenxing 超文本性) is an important factor in the creation of Internet literature works. In the majority of websites that publish Internet literature, the visitor first clicks on the genre it falls under. On the bottom of the page there are links to other texts under ‘book author recommendation’ (benshuzuojia tuijian 本书作家推荐), and on the right side of the page the comment section can be found. Comment section is a very important part of every website that publishes Internet literature: here, the readers can post comments, communicate with each other, and make votes for popularity polls (Shao 2015, 127). The readers become ‘followers’ of the work, which is vastly different process from simply downloading the book or purchasing and reading a printed copy. The literary work in this sense becomes an opening post, and comments of the readers follow-up posts. As the number of printed copies sold was a marker of success of the traditional writer, for the Internet writer it is the number of ‘hits’ (dianji 点击) on the website. By employing a new media type, the literary innovation that was brought by the Internet literature therefore lies in its use of multimedia and hypertext. Internet literature also provided an opportunity for a creative space that is free from elite- centric governance to emerge, due to its connection to ACG culture (anime, comics and game), which is currently the most prevalent in the Internet space, and the above-mentioned hypertextuality. With relation to the fan-based economy, Shao also mentions another term − tribalization (buluohua 部落化). Tribalization is a natural occurrence within fan economy, when people with similar tastes, mindsets and believes gather together on the web, as a form of re- tribalization after the print civilization era, in which the creation process became separate from the readers and forced the people to emerge from their ‘tribe’ (local social group) as an individual. Electronic technologies here play a role of ‘human extension’ (rende yanshen 人的延伸), where the internet serves as the extension of the central nerve system and allows people to connect instantly across great distances and thus surpassing the limitations of time and space of the past (Shao 2015, 128). The advantages of Internet literature when building literary communities also mentions Yang:
“The question is whether the internet adds anything new to the forms of association and if so, how these new forms affect substance. The crucial difference here is interactivity
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and time-space compression. The internet facilitates the rise of translocal and transnational online literary communities. The absence of physical locations also means that online communities can be much larger than literary communities in print culture” (2010, 347).
Even though Internet literature and print literature are quite different, they remain interconnected. As the popularity of Internet literature continues to rise, and its industry keeps expanding, its influence on other cultural areas also increases. This can be illustrated by the commercial success of Internet writers, and especially websites that publish Internet literature online. With traditional printed literature in crisis, print publishers often began to turn to the Internet literature in search of new works (Yang 2010, 337). Some of the literary works that originated as Internet literature were later published as printed books, although they would still remain under the ‘Internet’ label. “[...] Bookshops in China would group “novels” together on one shelf and “online novels” on another shelf, the only formal distinction between them being that the latter had originally been published on the Internet” (Hockx 2015, 5). Although originally the websites that publish Internet literature emerged as spaces for the literary enthusiasts and fans, and had little to no commercial ambitions, over the time they evolved to present one of the top commercially successful websites in China and created very effective business models. “Authors were not motivated by the possibility of financial gain, but rather by the desire for creative expression, belonging and popularity, that plays such an important role in other areas of user-generated content production” (Yang 2010, 346). As the online readership grew, certain Internet authors began to gain a huge popularity, thus creating a new, untapped market for genre fiction in China, especially when one keeps in mind that the demand for popular literature was largely unmet during the 90’s. For this reason, the print publishers at the time began to turn to amateur authors online that were popular, turning them into bestselling books (changxiaoshu 畅销书). It did not take long for websites that published monetized, user-generated- content to emerge. As Hockx said:
“It was against this background of typical postsocialist uncertainty, with familiar institutions disappearing, market mechanisms kicking in, and traditional tastes lingering, that Internet literature began to emerge” (2015, 26).
Currently, the most successful business model was pioneered by the website Qidian (qidian zhongwenwang 起点中文网, sometimes also referred to as ‘Starting Point Website’) and is currently used by most of the literary websites under Shengda Ltd. group (shengda wenxue youxiangongsi 盛大文学有限公司, here also referred to as Shengda Literature). It is mostly
15 known as the ‘freemium model’ or ‘VIP reading model’, and its employment by Qidian in 2003 marked the dawn of the commercialization of Internet literature (Jing 2012). The site operates as a standard platform for online forums, where users have the opportunity to publish their literary works and receive comments from readers. “There is an intricate ranking system for fiction based on numbers of visits to particular work, numbers of published readers’ comments, numbers of recommendations from readers to other readers, and the number of times a reader added a work to their private collection” (Hockx 2015, 112), along with some other ranking categories, which can provide useful information and statistics for the writer about how their work is being accepted by the audience. The website also employs a certain number of ‘VIP authors’, “whose works appear in serialization, chapter by chapter, initially for free, but usually about halfway through the novel they are moved behind a paywall” (Hockx 2015, 110). Under this model, once the author managed to cultivate a sizable readership and positive comments from readers, he or she is offered a contract by the website, which is referred to as shangjia 上架 (“getting on the perch”) (2015, 124). The first part of the work then can be accessed and read for free, but the readers have to pay in order to access later chapters, which is mostly done by the system of micropayments (Ren 2012, 122). Usually, the earnings from the work are divided 70 - 30 among the author and the web provider, making this system attractive not only for the publishing platform, but also for the writers, as it allows them to earn good money for their creative efforts, and for the readers which gain regular access to many works of their favourite genre for relatively modest amount of money (Hockx 2015, 110). After signing the contract, the authors are required to assign all intellectual property rights to the platform, which in practice means they are allowed to publish only on the contracted website in the future.
“In 2006, Qidian attracted over 100 million daily page views and made more than 30 million RMB (about $476,000) profit. Qidian’s successful combination of a freemium approach and micropayment system was regarded as one of the most significant commercial innovations made in China that year” (Ren 2012, 122).
The freemium model enables the readers to first try-out the content for free, which effectively combats the issue of plethora of relatively (or completely) unknown Internet writers that are able to publish online. Since the only requirement in order to publish on the Internet is to have access to the computer and Internet connection, the number of Internet literary works being posted is extremely large. Therefore, one of the advantageous features of the freemium model is that it allows the consumers − readers to decide if they are willing to invest money into the authors’ work. This business model is therefore favourable for both producers and consumers: the consumers
16 themselves filter the works they are interested in reading, thus the demand for popular literature is being met even more effectively. For the producers, the benefit lies in the ability of this model to significantly lessen the initial financial burden of publishing that is traditionally linked with most areas of cultural production. “By allowing communities of users to filter content for commercial viability and authors to assume the costs of creative production and experimentation, Qidian radically reduced the costs of bringing each individual creative work to the market” (Ren 2012, 123). When discussing business models of Internet literature in China, one cannot very well omit mentioning the issue of copyright and censorship. Although the success of the freemium model widened the perceptions of user willingness to pay for content in China’s emergent internet economy (Hockx 2015, 110), and there is currently just about 20 websites providing licensed access to Internet literature (Ren 2012, 119), countless of pirate websites exists and new ones keep emerging every day. One of the key conditions for the freemium model to be successful is the ability to enforce a copyright on their published works. After 2011, Shengda Literature began to take more proactive strategies against unauthorised distribution of their VIP content and it even resulted in the imprisonment of several ‘pirate’ web managers. However, at that time, only about 26 percent of estimated income came from the online reading platforms, and the earnings from selling the printed copies were almost double of that (Ren 2012, 124). Therefore, it can be noted that the development of more effective methods of copyright enforcement and better technological protection against unauthorised copying should in the future be one of the key concerns of the Internet literature industry. According to Shao we can distinguish three important characteristics, that all Internet literature works share (2015, 126-130):
1. “Consuming terminal decides all” (xiaofei zhongduan jueding yiqie 消费终端决定一 切) The consuming terminal here means the readers, which have a significant impact on the creative process and the appearance of the final product. Most of the big websites publishing Internet literature can be filed under this category. The literature on the website is usually divided into categories by genres (for example xuanhuan 玄幻，qihuan 奇幻, wuxia 武侠, kehuan 科幻, danmei 耽美, tongren 同人 and others), or by other popular themes such as chuanyue 穿越, hougong 后宫 or daomu 盗墓. The genre fiction thus dominates the literature created and published on this kind of websites. The main focus of the writers of genre novels is the readers’
17 pleasure, who demand the constant supply of similar ‘products’. For this reason, a strict set of conventions for each genre evolved, in order to satisfy such demand. This approach is marginally different from the ‘serious literature’ (yansu wenxue 严肃文学). Shao compares the production of novels on the Internet to a supermarket, where in ‘an exchange of desire’ (yuwangde jiaoliu 欲望 的交流) readers can choose from a selection of genre literature according to their preference.
“The author’s novel is like an opening post, comments in the comment section are the follow-up posts. In the follow-up posts, there can emerge opinion leaders (yijina lingxiu 意 见领袖), the readers can gift flowers (songhua 送花), pour water (guan shui 灌水, which is internet slang for spamming the forum) or throw bricks (paizhuan 拍砖; internet slang for harsh criticism), or can send a real money by tipping (dashang 打赏) the author” (Shao 2015, 23).
To sum up, all of previously mentioned practices illustrate the characteristics of the fan economy put in practice, where the terminal (reader) truly has the power to decide the final form of the product (novel).
2. Gamification (youxihua 游戏化) of the Internet literature As was previously hinted, the Internet literature in China remains interconnected with other areas of cultural production, namely the area of online gaming. The generation of young readers of Internet literature belongs to the ‘internet generation’ (wangluo yidai 网络一代), which also is the ‘gaming generation’ (wangyou yidai 网游一代). Therefore, one can notice the influence of online games on the Internet novels, the most significant being the linearization and acceleration of the plot, which is the biggest selling point of the Internet novels. Usually, in the Internet novel’s ‘take off’ (qipao 起跑), which are the initial free chapters about 20 thousand characters long − the length of a usual novel − the plot devised by the writer is usually rather extravagant. Then, as the novel goes, the plot gets more and more dangerous, just as the online game gets more difficult the further we play. However, the plot usually lacks more intricate foreshadowing, and is very straightforward.
“Reading of Internet novel thus reminds one of playing an online game. The protagonist takes a straight line towards the goal and the terminal point of the story. There is a great quantity and variety of this kind of novels, the plot just goes straight ahead. The
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feeling of thrill is easy to achieve, and the together with the ‘high3’ of playing the game makes [the novels] compatible with the fast-paced and instant-reading rules of the internet” (Shao 2015, 23).
The thrill mechanism of the online games became internalized by the Internet novels, and it is increasingly common that the popular novels are also being adapted as online games with Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi’s Xingchen Bian, or Tang Jia San Shao's Douluo Dalu as a prime example.
3. “Big bytes (dazijie 大字节) and microtext (weiwenben 微文本)” Most of the text produced as the Internet literature is in form of hypertext and big bytes4, counting over tens of thousands of characters. This is mostly derived from the salary system, which rewards the Internet writers for the word count, and is also influenced by the reader’s demand for a regular supply of big amount of their favourite works.
“Most of the contemporary Internet writers upload about 10 thousand characters a day, some of them are [even] scheduled twice or thrice. This amount of work is already reaching the limits of the human body, however, under the scrolling mouse of the Internet reader it only amounts to a time it takes to drink a cup of coffee” (Shao 2015, 24).
The big bytes, which make up the substance of the Internet literature, are made up by the modular aggregation of the microtext5. The textual form of microtext is adapted from the Internet’s microcontent (weineirong 微内容), which is the smallest independent unit of the content on the web − it can be a simple link, picture, video, blog post etc. The sheer size of the big bytes that make up the long post of the Internet novels has nothing to do with the grand and complex narrative but is in fact an aggregation of countless microtext modules. It is believed that as the Internet literature will develop more towards the direction of the mobile reading apps in the future, and the features of microtext will become more and more prominent, as it is suitable for easy and quick reading.
3 Shuang 爽, see chapter 1.3.2. 4 Byte is a unit of digital information. One ‘byte’ is made up of eight ‘bits’ (abbreviation of ‘binary digit’ - 1 or 0). Several bytes then make up a word, or in this case, a character. The term ‘big bytes’ here refers to the fact, that published Internet novels generally have a very large character-count, therefore making up a big unit of digital information. 5 The typical example of ‘microtext’ is a tweet or sms message. It usually has a limited length and commonly contains misspellings, slang, or abbreviations. 19
1.2. History of Internet literature in China - Brief Overview
As was previously mentioned, Internet literature in China is actually of international origin. It was first pioneered by a number of literary enthusiasts that began to publish their works on bulletin boards and personal web sites hosted outside China (Ren 2012, 120). Generally, the first emerged online journal that used Chinese characters is considered to be China News Digest (huaxia wenszhai 华夏文摘) in 1991. At that time, Internet network was not yet available in PRC, and the journal entries were written by Chinese students studying in Northern America, namely the United States. The journal became a channel for them to access news from China by republishing articles from Chinese newspapers and magazines, and also, writing and reading of Chinese articles provided an outlet for sharing their feeling of homesickness (Jing 2012, 540). Although the limited email links to China were established as early as 1987 (Reed 2010, 11), the Internet officially came to China in 1994. In its initial stages, the arrival of the Internet affected only a fraction of Chinese population, but soon after, the Internet cafés (wangba 网吧) began to spread and allowed greater number of Chinese, namely students, to connect to the Internet, thus raising the awareness about Internet literature’s existence and the genre started to gain popularity (Ren 2012, 121). The earliest Chinese Internet texts were usually shared in plain text documents due to contemporary technological limitations, and were still largely influenced by the print literature, mostly because the first generation of Internet writers, readers, and publishers grew up in the 1980’s and thus was influenced by the print magazines of that time (Yang 2010, 335), making the earliest Internet works a mixed hybrid of print and Internet literature. Aside from the aforementioned China News Digest, a number of other overseas magazines started to emerge. The first electronic journal devoted to literature was launched in 1994, and was called New Threads (Xinyusi 新语丝), although except literary works, some non-literary writings were published, as well as news. Other contemporary influential literary platforms on the Internet were Olive Tree (Ganlanshu 橄榄树) and Cute Tricks (Huazhao 花招), both founded in 1995. Cute Tricks was devoted mainly to women’s literature, and it was the first Chinese-language literary publication to obtain its own domain name and ISSN number (Hockx 2015, 30). In 1995, the Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) also appeared on servers at universities in China, and were one of the commonly used instruments for distributing original literary works, the example being Pizi Cai’s 痞子蔡 novel First Intimate Contact (Diyicide qinmi jiechu 第一次的 亲密接触), which was serialized through the BBS in 1998 in Mainland China and Taiwan. Another memorable website Under the Banyan Tree (Rongshuxia 榕树下) was founded in 1997
20 and started as a personal web page (Hockx 2015, 35). It was the first major website devoted fully to Internet literature (Yang 2010, 336), therefore occupying a prominent place within the Internet literature history.
“In 1999, Zhu founded the Shanghai Under the Banyan Tree Computer Company and turned his personal website into a full-fledged online literature portal, billed as “the global website for original Chinese language works” (Hockx 2015, 35).
The website organized literary prize competitions, promoted print publications under its brand, and in 2009 it was acquired by Shengda Literature. Number of famous Internet authors were discovered by the site, namely Anni Baobei 安 妮宝贝 or Murong Xuecun 慕容雪村. More rapid spread of the Internet in China began after 1998. The important development in the online writing was brought around the year 2000, with the emergence of interactive discussion forums, or ‘message boards’ (luntan 论坛) on the World Wide Web (Hockx 2015, 32). Forums are usually devoted to specific genres of themes. Usually only registered members can upload their works, which are further commented on by both members and non-registered users. Most of the discussions are supervised by moderators (banzhu 版主), which help to filter unwanted content, including deleting anything that might alert the Internet censors − this is more recent development due to the increase in Internet censorship, as originally the online forums allowed to see the users contributions on-screen almost instantly. The Internet literature started to gain a massive popularity in China by 2004. Coincidentally, Shengda Literature entered the market at the same time. It acquired seven well-known websites publishing Internet literature − Qidian, Jinjiang Literature City (Pujiang yuanchuang 普江原创), Under the Banyan Tree, Fragrant Red Sleeves (Hongxiu tianxiang 红袖添香), Read Novel (Xiaoshuo yueduwang 小说阅读网), XXSY (Xiaoxiang shuyuan 潇湘书院), and Romance Fiction Bar (Yanqing xiaoshuoba 言情小说吧) (Ren 2012, 123) − and began to employ its freemium business model, so the era of commercialization of Internet literature officially began. It is good to note that by 2005 the Chinese netizen population surpassed that of the United States (Reed 2010, 30). By the end of 2008, the number was already 298 million 6.
6 The data on the number of Internet users retrieved from the Statista Research Department. Available from:
2014 was the next crucial year in the Chinese Internet literature development when Shengda Literature was acquired by Tencent (Tengxun 腾讯)7 in November 2014. From this point, Tencent became the biggest player in the Internet literature market, even launching a mobile reading platform QQ Reading Tencent Literature (QQ 阅读的腾讯文学) within its ‘pan-entertainment strategy’ (fanyuele hua 泛娱乐化), which became the leading trend in Internet literature production after 2014. Along with some other companies also starting their own mobile reading platforms, namely Baidu (Baidu 百度) and Alibaba (Ali baba 阿里巴巴), we can mark the start of Internet literature spreading on new media platforms, such as mobile reading apps. The pan- entertainment strategy involves a series of copyright selling, and new mode of the business structure, that implies direct connection of the Internet literature to the film and TV, ACG and other areas of cultural production, and thus integrating Internet literature into broader market of mass entertainment (Shao 2015, 167). Such development can signify a beginnings of new media revolution, and therefore, it is possible for the Internet literature in this context to get into the same position, as the print literature was in the previous era. Therefore, researchers in the future should be able to observe, whether the Internet literature will be able to retain its independence.
1.3. Important Terms Relevant to the Internet Literature Discourse
Internet literature community over the time course of its existence has evolved into a wide- spread subculture, and thus a number of terms, which might seem confusing to the outsider, have developed. The aim of this chapter is to introduce these terms, provide a definition, and describe them in such way that clarifies their position within the Chinese Internet literature discourse.
1.3.1. YY Literature/Fiction When discussing or researching Internet literature, one often comes across the term ‘YY literature’ (YY 小说). The word ‘YY’ is the combination of pinyin initials of ‘yiyin 意淫’, which translated literally means ‘to fantasize’ or ‘sexual fantasy’, or “lust of the mind” (Hockx 2015, 112). The translation “fiction that makes oneself feel good” (Chao 2013, 225) could also be used. Originally, the term was used to evaluate the main protagonist Jia Baoyu in the Dream of the Red Mansion. However, in the context of the Internet literature, the term YY does not necessarily refer to sex and erotic fantasies but is a general reference to all desires that transcend the reality.
7 Tencent Holdings Limited (Tengxun Konggu Youxian Gongsi 腾讯控股有限公司) is the developer of the QQ instant messaging platform. 22
Therefore, YY could be considered a basic feature of Internet novels, which is why some people in Chinese cyberspace collectively refer to online novels as YY novels (Shao 2018, 224). In her doctoral thesis Desire and Fantasy Online (2013), where she researches Qidian’s models of production and affiliated genres, Chao makes a point that all of the produced genre literature reflects the individual desires of the Chinese netizens, namely the desire to be different and successful (Chao 2013, 224).
“This success is unanimously defined by wealth, high socio-political status and sex for male netizens, and love/sex, wealth, high socio-political status by female netizens. In this regard, male netizens’ version of ‘success’ and female netizens’ version of ‘success’ are complementary to one another. This definition of success has a heavy emphasis on materiality and sex, which were previously propagandised by the CCP regime in Mao China as a backward heritage from the ‘decadent’ West” (Chao 2013, 224-225).
She further notes that after the dawn of market economy in China, which came along with economic reforms, the desires of Chinese people became much more individualistic, and ‘capitalistic’, especially in contrast with previously enforced ideals of Mao’s regime. Shao calls this phenomenon the ‘I - generation (woshidai 我时代)’ (2015, 25). Such works of Internet fiction could be used as a ‘mirror’ which reflects these fantasies and desires, even to the extent that many of such works seem rather infantile or cheap (Chao 2013, 225). Similar observations towards YY literature shares Hockx, when he notes that all of the genres share the intention to transport readers into certain type of dream world “where they can identify with implausible superheroes whose desires for fame, fortune, love, and sex are all fulfilled, often in grotesque proportions” (Hockx 2015, 112). Most of the works that are produced as VIP on the Qidian website can be used as an example of ‘peak YY’, and the most popular genres, such as xuanhuan, daomu, hougong, or danmei, fall into this category (Shao 2015, 27). It seems that the deeper the desire is suppressed in the real space, the easier it is for the YY to get out of control, resulting in certain YY text to become ‘over- YY’ (guoduYY 过度 YY) (Shao 2018, 224). However, YY is not exclusive only to the Internet literature − as was noted before, its origins can be traced into some works of Chinese traditional literature. The famous wuxia writer Jin Yong 金庸 is considered as a founder of YY literature by some (namely his novel Deer Cauldron). Jin Yong’s works all have a certain YY qualities, as the plot provides reader with satisfaction of the mind. Some other characteristics − the world of jianghu that could be interpreted as a reflection of
23 society, and the possible educational and aesthetic function of the novel, as we can usually come across descriptions of the heroic spirit of xia upheld by the heroes, and also the rich use of Chinese cultural elements in the books − are emphasized by writers and critics alike in an attempt to elevate the value of popular culture (Shao 2015, 27). Originally, the YY was seen as something shameful and low, especially by the literary elite, but as the Internet literature community grew the views changed, as can be illustrated by an article called YY is Innocent, Dreaming is Reasonable, in which the author dryorange argues that in days where the value of money and power is celebrated, and the reality often seems harsh, the YY novels serve as a break from the real world. Shao further argues that this article could be used as an illustration of the cultural rebellion of the I - generation, which became much more consumerist. She also points out that the recreational function of literature, previously repressed during May 4th New Literature Movement, seems to be taken up by the YY literature (2015, 28). The purpose of realist novels propagated by the New Literature movement is to broaden the reader’s understanding of the real world, therefore such novels have a solid relationship with reality. Unlike the imagination of realistic literature, the ontology of the fictional world in YY literature is not morphed after the real world, but its purpose is to escape from the reality.
“Reality is to be ‘traversed’, and history is to be ‘overpassed’, because only by passing through the reality and by overpassing history can the desire in the space of the novel be fulfilled. [...] The more you ignore the rules of historical reality, the easier it is to fulfill your own will” (Shao 2015, 30).
The setting (sheding 设定) is very important part of YY fiction. From different world settings can be derived different narratives and story modes, thus stipulating the limits and possibilities of each YY genre, showing trends occurring within YY literature works (Shao 2018, 225). The readers of YY literature are sometimes referred to as zhainan 宅男 (for men) or zhainü 宅女 (for women). The word zhainan/zhainü is considered by some as a Chinese alternative of the Japanese expression otaku おたく or is at least derived from it. Zhainan is generally a person who stays at home all the time, typically spending a lot of time playing online games, or in this case, reading Internet YY novels. Originally, the expression really was adopted from Japanese, and is a further reminder of Internet literature’s interconnection with the ACG culture, as the zhainan/zhainü is someone, who is ACG culture enthusiast, and originally the title was used among ACG fans as an expression of subcultural identity (Shao 2018, 3). Over the time, the term spread
24 even among the people that do not typically consume the ACG culture and the expression gained a lot of derogatory undertones, becoming more synonymous with Japanese hikikomori 引きこも り, which is a term that refers to a reclusive person that seeks different degrees of social isolation8. However, among the ACG enthusiasts the word zhai 宅 (home) retained its positive connotation, as it is a title that expresses their extreme enthusiasm for their hobby (being it manga, anime, gaming, or the Internet novels), and within the context of fan economy of the Internet literature, it drives them to use various media tools to create their own works, subsequently to be active on various Internet platforms in order to discuss their common interests and share their homemade texts with fellow fans. This leads to formation of Internet communities, which base their collective identity on their shared interests, rather than their social group or geography (Shao 2018, 6) and could be used as another example of tribalization within Internet literature discourse.
1.3.2. Shuang 爽 - “Coolness/Thrill/High” Shuang 爽 is a term that one inevitably comes across when researching Chinese Internet literature, but can be very confusing, because of its rather specific use within the Chinese cyberspace. The literal translation means “feeling well”, and it usually refers to something that makes us “feel good”. Within the Internet literature discourse, shuang refers specifically to the feeling of refreshment and satisfaction one gets from the reading of the Internet novel (Shao 2018, 227). Because shuang is a term that is quite complex, and is better understood in context, plus it does not have any equivalent in English, I decided against using direct translation. In order to get better idea of possible ways to translate this term, I decided to search through a discussion forums like Quora and Reddit in hopes of gaining a better insight in how the word is used by netizens in regards to Internet novels, and whether an established translation on platforms that translate Chinese Internet novels to English9 exists. I was partially successful − although none of the threads I found were discussing the term shuang specifically, it was mentioned in one of the answers in a question thread on Quora. The name of the thread was Are Chinese Wuxia/Xianxia novels popular in China? And how are they perceived?10 and within this thread, the users tried to explain the
8 Hikikomori. (2009) In Wikipedia: Accessed March. 2020, retrieved from:
“People see them as “fast food” books. Most of them are not “nutritious” as serious books, but they meet a lot of readers’ needs and let people relax and feel a little thrilled from the plots.
A common pattern is revenge. For example, the MC was bullied by an arrogant bully at first. Then one day, the MC humiliated him in public for revenge. There are also other “high spots” (爽点) patterns in such “high texts” (爽文).11”
This answer, along with some others shared within the thread, suggests, that the readers view the novels as something ‘addicting’ or ‘binge-worthy’, and, as used in this example, causing the feeling of ‘high’ by reading the texts. Shao provides us with a similar description, when she writes that “whether achieving a purpose or fulfilling desire, [the novel] needs to bring a thrilling reading experience” (2018, 227). Another point she makes is that the shuang approach to the literature is fundamentally different from the May 4th New Literature philosophy that stresses its healing function (2018, 227), which I see as an equivalent of the view of shuangwen as “fast food books”, as mentioned in the above Quora comment. It could be said that shuang is one of the basic characteristic of the Internet novels, therefore some people simply refer to Internet novels as ‘shuangwen 爽文’, which originally implied simply satisfying the desire, and basically was pointing towards the xiaobai 12 or was seen as its equivalent. However, some of the works that classify as wenqing13 also use shuang but should not be filed under the shuangwen category. The climax part of the novel that gives the reader best ‘high’ is called ‘shuangdian 爽点’, and could include relatively low-grade literary elements like ‘slap in the face (dalian 打脸)’ and harem (hougong 后宫), or higher-grade elements like knowledge (zhishi 知识) and feelings (qinghuai 情怀) (Shao 2018, 227-228). The translations I have come across include ‘cool points’ or above mentioned ‘high spots’, and simply put, the term is used to point to those most climactic parts of the novel, that give the reader the best feeling of thrill.
11 The Quora answer retrieved from https://qr.ae/pNnii5 12 See the chapter 1.3.3. Xiaobai versus Wenqing. 13 See the chapter 1.3.3. Xiaobai versus Wenqing. 26
Shao sees shuang, along with YY, as one of the two basic driving forces of the development of Internet literature. Both serve as a form of escape from reality and self-indulgence and are a target of frequent elite’s scrutiny.
1.3.3. Xiaobai 小白 versus Wenqing 文青 When reading Internet literature, namely Internet novels, one can come across a lot of ways to categorize it, asides from the genre distinction. One of the distinct categories of Internet literature is whether it falls under xiaobai or wenqing. Xiaobai 小白 (“little white”) as a general expression has a meaning of ‘greenhorn’ or ‘novice’. With regards to Internet literature, the term used to refer to new readers that just got into the Internet novels or that do not have much reading experience at all. Over the time, it mostly became a term to address the readers who only read shuangwen. As it is difficult to judge one’s reading experience, whether the reader reads shuangwen now became the main judging criterion whether he or she falls under the xiaobai category (Shao 2018, 258). The readers that have long-term reading experience, and thus became more demanding, like to refer to themselves as laobai 老白. While xiaobai only reads shuangwen and is content with the simplest and most direct form of desire satisfaction, the laobai has already passed this stage (Shao 2018, 258). In other words, xiaobai are the junior readers of Internet novels, and laobai are the senior, more advanced readers. The literary works with the xiaobai as the main target readers is called xiaobaiwen 小白文. This type of works that is aimed at the junior readers is still the most prevalent, but with the Internet literature business booming the competition among the writers is getting tougher, so the number of xiaobaiwen works is slowly declining (Shao 2018, 259). The xiaobaiwen is considered the mainstream of Internet writing, and the story of ‘loser’s counterattack’ (diaoside nixi 屌丝的逆 袭) most of them tell is “the biggest daydream of Chinese people” (Shao 2015, 162). The type of shuang to be found in the xiaobaiwen works is derived from its audience, which is mostly young people from the lower strata of society − therefore, we seldom read about the triumphs of the rich and mighty in the xiaobaiwen stories. Instead, the narrative is usually focused on lower class good- for-nothing (feichai 废柴) which against all odds manages to climb up the social ladder, often by employing ‘golden finger’ (jinshouzhi 金手指), thus creating a daydream which helps to alleviate stress of everyday life (Shao 2015, 162). Golden finger is a term that developed, again, under the influence of online games, in which it was used as a reference for a cheating sequence (sometimes also called ‘plug-in’ [waigua 外挂]). In Internet novels, it refers to the circumstances of
27 protagonist’s means to achieving success by using special rules, inaccessible by normal people. This type of plot is called ‘to open a golden finger’ (kai jinshouzhi 开金手指) by the readers (Shao 2018, 256-257). There are different types of golden fingers that can be employed, the typical ones include a rare magical artifact, which helps the protagonist to ‘level up’, or it can be a spiritual master, who provides the hero with precious knowledge about cultivation. The latter even gained a certain notoriety within Internet literary circle, and is usually referred to as ‘system grandpa’ (xitong laoyeye 系统老爷爷), pointing towards the appearance of this type of character in so many of Internet novels that it became a stereotype (2018, 257). Increasing gamification of Internet literature is another factor that adds onto the reason why xiaobaiwen is the most widespread type of works, namely in Internet fantasy novels. With the employment of pan-entertainment strategy by Tencent on its publishing platforms, the demand for works that are easily convertible into online games has risen. The game publishers favour the xiaobaiwen not only due to its large readership, but also because its characteristics (e.g. the pursuit of shuang) are more in line with the needs for the conversion into an online game (Shao 2015, 172). According to Shao, following authors and works are the most representative of the xiaobai category: "Original Five Whites (zhongyuan wubai 中原五白)" - Tang Jia San Shao 唐家三少 with his work Douluo Dalu 斗罗大陆 (Soul Land), Wo Chi Shi Hong Shi 我吃西红柿 (I Eat Tomatoes) with his Xingchenbian 星辰变 (Stellar Transformations), Tian Can Tu Dou 天蚕土豆 (Silkworm Potatoes) with Doupo Cangqiong 斗破苍穹 (Breaking Sky), Meng Ren Shen Ji 梦人 神机 (Dream Magic Machine) with Yangshen 阳神 (Sungod) and Chen Dong’s 辰东 Shenmu 神 墓 (God’s Grave), in recent years also joined by Er Gen 耳根 (Ear Root), Liu Xia Hui 柳下挥 and others (2018, 259). Works of Internet literature that fall under the wenqing 文青 category are, as a concept, aimed at xiaobai and intentionally opposed to it. Wenqing is an abbreviation of wenyi qingnian 文 艺青年 (“Literary Youth”), and unlike xiaobai, which is a term used to refer to the readers, wenqing actually points to the writers. The popularity of wenqing writers is not as high as of those who write xiaobaiwen, but the literary and aesthetic values of wenqing works are generally higher. The number of wenqing writers is therefore also naturally lower, and sometimes, wenqing is regarded as a ‘next stage’ where the writer can arrive after passing the initial/beginner’s xiaobai stage. Therefore, the wenqing writers are considered to be an ‘elite’ of the Internet literature (Shao 2015, 163). The group of senior readers of Internet literature (laobai) that are the most opposed to
28 the xiaobaiwen can actually be labelled as fans of wenqing (Shao 2018, 261-262). Although the number wenqing fans is not as great as xiaobai, they are usually more loyal (Shao 2015, 164). Generally speaking, the wenqing writers are focused on creating literary works of great quality, thus creating a trend of high-quality texts (jingpinhua 精品化) in Internet literature. Such works are simply called wenqingwen 文青文. As the focus of xiaobaiwen was shuang, in wenqingwen it is qinghuai 情怀 (“feelings”, or “sentiment”) (2018, 261-262). The ‘feelings’ that seem to be the focus of wenqingwen can be interpreted differently according to different authors. The texts, however, often discuss themes like self-realization of independent personality and the meaning of human life and existence, as can be seen in wenqing novels of the author Mao Ni 猫 腻 (Shao 2016, 299). The ‘feelings’ in Internet literature are scarce, but at the same time, when not handled with care, they tend to provoke sarcasm and are abandoned, as they do not seem genuine enough for the readers. Shao particularly points out that the reason why Mao Ni’s works were successful, is that his application of feelings in his novels was adapted to the current trends and national psychological structure, instead of copying past traditional schemes (2016, 302). To sum- up, the wenqing writers’ ‘feelings’ are focused on pro-egoism of the modern era, which makes the writing seem more authentic to the readers, who consequently are able to relate to the story more easily. Following works and authors are the most representative of the wenqing category according to Shao: Jianke 间客(The Outcast) and Jiangye 将夜 (Nightfall) from Mao Ni 猫腻, Xuezhong Handaoxing 雪中悍刀行(The Snowy Path of the Heroic Blade) from Feng Huo Xi Zhu Hou 烽火 戏诸侯 (Beacon Drama Prince)，Chenghong niandai 橙红年代 (The Orange-red Decade) from Xiao Qi Xiao 骁骑校，Taishangzhang 太上章 (Rules of Taoists) from Xu Gong Liao Sheng Zhi 徐公了胜治，Shengyuan 生缘 (Bear a Reason) from Yan Yu Jiang Nan 烟雨江南 (Misty Rain of Jiangnan), Suiluan 隋乱 (Sui Upheaval) from Jiu Tu 酒徒 (Drunkard) and others (2018, 262). Although the xiaobai and wenqing are two concepts that stand in opposition to each other, the fact remains that they still exist organically within the Internet literature structure. It is not anything unusual, that xiaobai writer attempts to write a wenqingwen, or that wenqing writer writes xiaobaiwen. Sometimes, after passing the initial xiaobai stage, the writer can turn into direction of wenqing. On the other hand, in order to gain bigger readership, some wenqing writers can undergo xiaobaihua 小白化 (“little whitening”), and the motivation usually being the vision of greater earnings (Shao 2015, 191).
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2. PART 2
2.1. Genre in Chinese Internet Literature Genre fiction (leixing xiaoshuo 类型小说) is arguably the most successful kind of Internet literature and has been experiencing a boom in China since 2005 (Hockx 2015, 108). The ‘genre’ within the Chinese Internet literature discourse has been developing in a rather specific direction, influenced not only by the contemporary trends in Internet literary world, but also by its heritage from traditional Chinese culture. The Internet literary environment and reader-oriented production model led to the emergence of wide array of genres and subgenres that are unparalleled in other literary discourses. In this chapter, I will discuss the different factors that influence the concept of ‘genre’ in Chinese Internet literature. The issue of genre is discussed by Chao in her thesis, where she proposes the theory that genre in Internet fiction is directly influenced by the prosumers, in which case it can be observed as a social phenomenon in accordance with Miller14, who describes genre as a “composed of a constellation of recognizable forms bound together by an internal dynamic” (1984, 152) and generally presents a definition of a genre as a phenomenon that has basis on certain situation and social practices. In this regard, recurrence is a key, and many definitions following this logic hence involve a statement that genre stems from organizing principles found in recurring situations of discourses based on common factors, the result being that the approach towards genres as a classifying discourse is not uncommon (Miller 1984). Internet literature, being based on fan economy and therefore creating a reader-centric environment, tends to react more readily towards the demands of the readers (Chao 2013, 185-186). As has been described in previous chapters, the contemporary reader of Internet literature expects to be supplied with constant stream of similar works. Furthermore, there seems to be a trend of rather strict genre conventions that are usually tailored to specific needs of different groups of readers.
“The juxtaposition of new and traditional genres and subgenres of popular fiction has been inherited by Internet fiction, where as many as thirteen fiction genres, each of which contains several subgenres, compromise the literary landscape. Guidance on each subgenre is provided to assist prosumers with a clearer picture in which they could locate what they
14 Miller, Carolyn. (1984). Genre as Social Action. Quarterly Journal of Speech - QUART J SPEECH. 70. 151- 167. 10.1080/00335638409383686.
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prefer. This expository guidance suggests a precision of subgenre classification” (Chao 2013, 186).
The literary practice of “literary genres” is supposed to be derived from the idea of industrial taxonomy, as proposed by Foucault, in which the long tradition of ‘enforcing the order’ into various areas of human life exists. By regarding the literary genres as a social phenomenon, one can easily see how this theory can be applied − the genres are then, once again, reflection of the society’s need for taxonomic classification, and at the same time, serve as an organizing instrument, that enables us to see genres as “typified rhetorical actions based in recurring situations” (Chao 2013, 184-185). The genres of Internet literature are comprised of traditional genres of Chinese popular fiction and new genres that arrived in China with translations of Western literary works (mostly of fantasy and science-fiction literature). Chao points out that the Internet literature with the inheritance of new and traditional genres thus became a “literary mélange”, because of the way it combines and blends different genres together. The authors and producers use the precise classification of genres and subgenres in order to attract more customers. Chao further notes that the new and traditional genres are not only juxtaposed, but even are being fused together or undergo fission. Thus, this leads to creation of many new genres and subgenres that appear online at a fast pace (2013, 185-187). The aesthetic of Internet literature has also been influenced by its reader-centric nature and production in cyberspace, as argued by Duan in his essay Chinese Internet Literature: Digital literary genres and new writing subjects (2018). He states that the different perceptions of time and space on the Internet has perpetually led to the widespread of genres like time-travel fiction (chuanyue xiaoshuo 穿越小说) and different fantasy genres (2018, 676-677).
“In cyberspace you can be everywhere at any moment and the same site can be experienced simultaneously by many different people worldwide [...] in cyberspace there is no local time or date . . . This simultaneous communication makes the relative measurement of time and space obsolete” (Duan 2018, 676).
Due to the time and space compression, its importance for human beings diminishes, and as such it influences the aesthetic values found in produced Internet literature works. Another point he makes is that due to somehow reduced level of censorship in Internet literature, the Internet writers are provided with relatively free space where can they create works with incorporated elements and themes that might not be allowed to be published in the real world print-literature.
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In his view, this explains “the explosion of supernatural, violent, exotic, rebellious or even “immoral” writings in net literature” (2018, 677), and the lax supervision might also mean the occurrence of parody versions of respected historical figures. Hockx on the other hand mentions another change that has been brought out by Internet fiction, and Internet fiction websites − under their influence, the radical redefinition of literary genres started to occur, for example “literature (wenxue) in general [is] now increasingly used as a genre label for more aesthetically oriented writing. Starting Point, for instance, uses the term wenxue xiaoshuo (literary fiction), indicating that xiaoshuo is the overarching category and “literature” a subcategory” (Hockx 2015, 112).
Traditionally, Chinese fiction is considered to have origins from mythology, early medieval anecdotes, collections of gossip and street talk by feudal lords’ petty officials, and historiography (Gu 2006, 316-317). As Hsia wrote “the historians provide the most important literary background in the making of the Chinese novel” (1968, 11), which is a statement easily applicable on the Internet literature as well, as certain conventions found in the classic Chinese novels were inherited by the Internet genre fiction. For centuries, the most privileged narrative genre in China was classical historiography, which mostly followed the tradition of annalistic-biographic form as established by Sima Qian 司马迁 or the chronological form following the tradition of Chunqiu (春秋, Spring and Autumn Annals). As Ge writes:
“For the other narrative genres in wenyan, such as zhiguai (stories of ghosts and spirits) and chuanqi (tales of marvels) that flourished mainly during the Six Dynasties (317– 589) and the Tang periods respectively, historiography was the unchallenged model. Most of the writings in these genres went under the rubric of historical records, either as derivatives from or as supplements to historiography. To assuage the inveterate Chinese distrust of unbridled fictionality, the narration of miraculous and supernatural events had to be legitimized by reference to a “reliable” source—often a documented history. This alignment of what was unmistakably fictional with historiography was probably the only way out of a dilemma. On the one hand, the fictionality of the tales had to be camouflaged, for the author was supposed to be a transmitter of what had been proved truthful rather than a fabricator of something fabulous and fantastic, and therefore a cloak of a certain amount of factuality or at least vraisemblance was needed” (2001, 183).
Both in Chinese and European traditions, it was mostly accepted view that fiction can include mythical, fabricated and fantastical elements, whereas (good) history avoids them and is based on verifiable facts. Similar views about Chinese literary space before 20th century as Ge shares 32
Edwards in his essay Gendered Fictions and Chinese Women History (2012). He states that the main focus of the written text used to be conveying morality and truth to its readers. Historical documents were regarded as records of state affairs and ‘experiences from the past’ and existed mainly with the purpose to serve as learning source for the later rulers and advisors. Similarly, the fiction also conformed to this trend of containing didactic function and should provide ‘warning to the readers’ regarding the correct moral stands and conveying the truth. However, fiction was for most of the Chinese history still considered ‘lower’ form of literature, in contrast with history and poetry, and was the synonym for ‘popular literature’. Its ‘common’ form could similarly be reflected in the use of vernacular speech, like in huaben 话本 (common books) popular from Song to Ming dynasty, which used vernacular language, colloquialisms and idioms, or gong’an 公案, the criminal stories which emerged during Song. However, fiction written in wenyan was also produced, for example the chuanqi 传奇 (tales of marvels) from Tang dynasty, and biji 笔记 (random jottings) (Edwards 2012, 308-312). The dominance of the historical narrative genre did influence the style of fiction writing, which can be observed in the way the pre-twentieth century fiction works make pretence at historical authenticity:
“For example, the Tang dynasty chuanqi, the Ming dynasty novels Shuihu zhuan 水滸 傳 (All Men are Brothers, The Water Margin) (ca. 1550), Jinping mei (1580s), and Xiyou ji 西遊記 (Journey to the West, Monkey) (1590s) each make assertions at the commencement of their narratives that the story related in their pages really did occur—these exhortations come despite their equally common discussion of mythic and magical origins” (Edwards 2012, 312).
In these novels, references of physical locations, specific times and actual people occupy the first pages, which is a tendency inherited by most fictional narratives. Even the Chinese term for fiction − xiaoshuo 小说 − points towards the trend of ‘semi-factual’ basis of the fictional narrative: the common narration of street gossip, circulating anecdotes or roadside chatter then suggest the real version of events through the form of ‘hearsay’, rather than suggesting the entirely imagined one (Edwards 2012, 312). This tendency not only translated into most classical novels, but also manifested in the contemporary works of Internet literature. In many Internet novels, especially in those falling under any fantasy genre and/or featuring transmigration or rebirth theme15, we can observe the
15 See chapter 2.2. Terms Relevant to Internet Genre Fiction. 33 story of the fictional world’s genesis or ‘the tale of origin’ of the protagonist contained in the prologue or the first chapter. As an example, I am going to use Internet novels Douluo Dalu 斗罗大陆 (Soul Land) of the author Tang Jia San Shao, Panlong 盘龙 (Coiling Dragon) from Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi, the books of the author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 墨香铜臭 - Tianguan Cifu 天官赐福 (Heaven’s Official Blessing), Modao Zushi 魔道祖师 (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), and Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong 人渣反派自救系统 (Scum-Villain Self-Saving System), and lastly Chen Dong’s 辰东 Shenmu 神墓 (God’s Grave). All of these works belong to either xiaobaiwen or danmei16 , are labelled as certain type of fantasy17, and my selection is further based on their wide popularity among the readers. The first chapter of the Douluo Dalu series is written in the form of prologue, which describes the death of the main protagonist right before he transmigrates into another world in which the main story takes place. The opening scene gives us key information about his original life and the circumstances of his demise, which are crucial for the follow-up story, as the hero retains certain skills and qualities from his original world to his next life through the transmigration, which help him thrive in the new world. On the other hand, the initial part of the first chapter of Shenmu depicts the fictional world in which the story of the novel takes place. Rather than narrating a certain scene, it is a description of the world setting, rules, and significant places. As the chapter advances, the description of the fictional world turns into the scene of the rebirth of the main protagonist, which takes place many millennia after his initial death. The main character is introduced into this new age by a ‘random passer-by character’, who helps him recover from his revival, followed by hero’s reminiscing about his past life, which gives us details relevant to the future advancement of the plot. In all of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s novels, the introduction states the tale of origin of each protagonist in a way that sets the ‘background’ of the character. Unlike in Douluo Dalu, where the reader witnesses the death of the character, in Modao Zushi the prologue is set in form of ‘hearsay’, which means we read about the main character as if one would be sitting in a local pub listening on the gossip. The reader is thus acquainted with the protagonist past life and general public’s attitude towards him before his rebirth, which is an important part of the main plot. Similarly, in Tianguan Cifu’s first chapter, we read about several stories from main protagonist youth that are
16 Danmei literature is often considered as xiaobaiwen’s counterpart in women-oriented Chinese Internet literature. 17 The method I employ for assigning genres will be further explained and reasoned in the later parts of this chapter. 34 critical in order to introduce his character, and provides us with information needed to understand the plot, which is set several hundred years in the future. Both Tianguan Cifu and Modao Zushi are stories set in single fictional world, either featuring the motive of rebirth or tale of the immortal cultivator. In Fanpai Zijiu Xitong, we are presented with the story of ardent reader of Internet harem novels who dies in his original world and gets sucked into one of the novels he read and criticized, and where he subsequently takes place of one of the villains. The prologue of Fanpai Zijiu Xitong firstly takes place before his transmigration and provides us with the summary of the original harem novel’s plot and its characters, as the main hero read it before his death. It gives us the general idea of the protagonist’s character and skills, in this case it's his vast knowledge of xiaobaiwen and the storyline of the original novel, which he uses after his transmigration as a means to save his own life, as in the original story, the villain he replaced was killed by the novel’s main hero. Unlike in all of the above mentioned novels, the story of Panlong does not begin with the tale of origin of either the main protagonist or the fictional world, but the reader gets simply ‘thrown into the water’ without much introduction to the main character or the world’s setting. The genesis part is not conventional in genres, which take mostly after Western fantasy novels, therefore, this could be the one of the reasons why Panlong is commonly labelled under qihuan18 genre that is considered to be extremely influenced by the Western fantasy, as the author most- likely followed this model and thus the tale of the origin was omitted. Based on the provided examples, we can conclude the following: the prologues of the novels provide us with ‘an introductory part’, where the reader gets acquainted with the character and the setting of the fictional world, either in the form of ‘witnessing the events’, ‘narrator’ or ‘hearsay’. This could be considered the heritage of classical and vernacular fiction, which at the given time attempted to convince reader about the factual basis of the story, in attempt to follow the form established by historiography. Following the chain, which starts in myths and history, continues through anecdotes and fiction in wenyan, and vernacular fiction, we arrive in the modern day and the contemporary works of Internet fiction, in which the evidence they still show signs of employing similar structural features (like the ‘tale of origin’ just described) like traditional Chinese fiction can be observed. Apart from historiography, the tradition of storytelling is another important source, to which the origins of the Chinese fiction can be traced, and certainly deserves a mention. During the early Sung period, the storytellers’ guilds were uniting experts in short stories or xiaoshuo (small talks)19,
18 For the description of the qihuan genre see chapter 2.3.1. Qihuan 奇幻 - “Western Fantasy”. 19 Xiaoshuo in this case refers to genre of oral narrative. 35 which had divisions like love stories, ghost stories, crime stories and stories of chivalry. The recordings of these tales give us the idea of the formal and rhetorical features of the oral tradition, which influence can later be seen in classical Chinese novels. However, the oral tradition had a greater impact on the vernacular fiction, as argued by Ge in the book Out of the Margins - The Rise of Chinese Vernacular Fiction (2001). The earliest vernacular novel, Shuihuzhuan (水浒传， Water Margin), is analysed here as a representative work of the intertwined relationship of oral tradition and early vernacular prose (Ge 2001, 63). The development of traditional Chinese narrative literature can be characterized by gradual shift from historicity to fictionality, with “Shuihuzhuan in pivotal position in the course of that transition” (2001, 37) as the novel is assumed to be based on separate short pieces that evolved from fictional tales, which first developed orally and were subsequently assembled together (2001, 39). The recurrent narrative patterns of oral genres can be observed in Shuihuzhuan, and also in later prose works such as Jingpingmei, Sanguo Yanyi (三国演义, Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and Xiyouji (西游记, Journey to the West). However, as Sanguo Yanyi is considered to have roots in both oral storytelling and classical historiography, the linguistic medium in this work is the mixture of baihua (vernacular) with simplified wenyan (2001, 93). Therefore, the impact of vernacular fiction on the narratives written in wenyan has also been proved, for example when inserting direct speech in the text:
“What we call wenyan narratives are often in different mixes with vernacular ingredients. Typically, however, a wenyan narrative tends to be sustained by a linguistic detachment from the narrated world. [...] The narrated world is thus largely a factual world without a fully developed linguistic dimension of its own. In extreme cases it can be a silent world, where the residents do not talk but are only talked about by the outside voice of the narrator” (Ge 2001, 184).
In summary, when researching the origins of contemporary Internet fiction, one can discover that the sources mostly span across the traditional Chinese fiction. Many narrative conventions and tropes established as early as in Xiyouji or Shuihuzhuan can be still observed in the modern narratives, like in the popular wuxia fiction. The themes of martial arts and chivalry found in Shuihuzhuan served as a source of inspiration for a large number of Qing vernacular novels, which was the proximate ancestor of wuxia fiction in the 20th century. Some other motives popular in wuxia novels can also be traced back towards Shuihuzhuan, including jianghu 江湖, shanlin 山林, and xia 侠 (Hamm 2005, 17). The assumption that contemporary Internet fiction genres, especially those falling under the fantasy umbrella, take up after the genre conventions of traditional Chinese
36 popular fiction, namely of wuxia novels, is one I have analysed in my bachelor’s thesis Literary Topoi of Wuxia Genre in Contemporary Chinese Fantasy Xuanhuan Novels in 2017. The conclusions of my thesis are the following: Based on my analysis of two xuanhuan novels, Panlong and Douluo Dalu, I have identified five main motives which were used with smaller or greater amount of modification in the novels, and that are commonly featured also in wuxia novels. The motives are: the world of jianghu, the hero xia who uses martial arts (wushu) in order to execute justice, the pursuit of revenge, and the female knight nüxia. Even though the fictional worlds of xuanhuan novels are modelled after the Western fantasy fictional worlds, the ‘inner values’ featured in the stories remain distinctly Chinese. Unlike in wuxia, where jianghu refers to only limited community, in xuanhuan this principle was applied to the whole fictional world, and consequently established a narrative convention, where the hero’s ultimate goal is to achieve the higher-most position of power in that world (ascending as god). Despite the significant influence of Western fantasy on this Internet fantasy genre, it is evident that xuanhuan still retained many genre conventions of Chinese popular fiction. Understanding the cultural sources is one of the key elements in order to be able to properly research the contemporary Internet literature genres. In the previous paragraphs, I have briefly summarized the influence of traditional Chinese literature (fiction) on the contemporary Internet literature. Cultural sources of Internet genre literature also mentions Shao: she narrowed the sources down into three main groups (2015, 62-64). The first source is the traditional Chinese culture (zhongguo chuantong wenhua ziyuan 中国传统文化资源), namely the traditional genres of Chinese (popular) fiction, which I already elaborated on in the previous part of the chapter. Shao here points out the fact that many of the ‘source’ genres belong among the genres suppressed under the May 4th New literature movement, as they were labelled as ‘superstition’ under the new agenda that was attempting to eradicate anything superstitious or religious from the new mode of Chinese literature. After 1939, the traditional popular literature began to be held in opposition to the Western literary tradition of critical realism, and also to modern Chinese writing, which was taking the Western tradition as model. Although it can offer the use of colloquial language, according to the scholars of this period the traditional fiction had little to offer in the means of artistic quality and ideology. For example, Zhou Zuoren20 listed in his essay Humane Literature (1919) “ten kinds of deplorable literature, all of which are identifiable primarily with popular fiction and drama rather than with the classical genres of poetry and prose” (Hsia 1968, 3-4). Such genres were for
20 Zhou Zuoren 周作人 was Chinese essayist and translator, and one of the key figures of May 4th Movement. 37 example some ‘old genres’ of Chinese literature, like the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literature (hudieyuanyang 蝴蝶鸳鸯), tales of immortals and ghosts (xianxia guiguai 仙侠鬼怪), stories of shady officers (guanchang heimu 官场黑幕), along with genres that prevailed mostly in Hong Kong and Taiwan - martial arts and romantic fiction (wuxia yanqing xiaoshuo 武侠言情小说). These genres are the main sources of contemporary Internet genres like xuanhuan, chuanyue (transmigration), wuxia, officialdom, urban, romance and others. The second source of Internet literature are certain areas of Western culture, namely the American Hollywood movies, online games and Euro American science fiction and fantasy. Rowling's Harry Potter and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings have the biggest influence, notably on certain Internet fantasy genres like qihuan, where the fictional worlds were, especially in its beginnings, often modelled after worlds presented in these two famous works, and started a time period of ‘spin-offs’ − a good example being the project Novoland (Jiuzhou xilie 九州系列), which is strongly inspired by The Lord of the Rings. The series started being published in 2000, and under cooperation of 7 authors 30 books was published. The third source is the Japanese manga and anime, especially important for the Chinese danmei culture (danmei wenhua 耽美文化) and fanfiction (tongrenwen 同人文)21 in which case it is the direct source. Shao states that contemporary genres of Internet literature all mix, combine and fuse within them the above mentioned three cultural sources.
When it comes to classifying specific Internet novels under a certain genre, the researchers may come across some difficulties. The reasons for this vary: different platforms might sort the novel under different genres, due to differences in employed genre description22 or simply not including certain genres or subgenres into its used classifying system. Some genres might simply be very similar to each other, to the point that there is no consensus on to which particular genre the work might belong to even among the fans (“consuming terminal decides all”). During my research of Chinese Internet literature, I have come to a conclusion that applying genre classification system in the same way one assigns genre to the paper-based novel is not very effective. Instead, I decided to compare the genre-classification methods of Internet literature as can be seen on different platforms with content-organizational systems commonly used on the
21 The term comes directly from Japanese dojin 同人, and to English is usually translated as ‘fandom’. In Japan, the term is used to refer to amateur self-published works, including manga, novels, fan guides, art collections, music, anime, and video games. Some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular publishing industry. Source: Dōjin. (2019) in Wikipedia, accessed in March. 2020, retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Djin 22 More on specific genres of Internet literature in chapter 2.3. Chinese “Fantasy” Internet Literature Genres. 38 web, and see if there is a possibility that the literary medium has a direct influence not only on the production model, but also on the concept of genre in the Internet literature discourse. The literary medium of Internet literature is placed on the web, which provides the Internet literature works with distinct characteristics like hypertextuality and possibly multimedia. The fan economy creates a reader-centric environment, where the readers not only get the chance to take part in the creative process, but also naturally participate in the selection of the works that will be published the most. Together, these two factors bring about an environment, in which the conditions for the publishing platform being as user-friendly as possible are set. In previous chapters23, I introduced this model as one that leads to redefinition of the process of literary creation, which is a common consensus among various scholars who researched this topic in the past. However, my conclusion is that its influence does not stop here but reaches further into the way the Internet genre literature is categorized. A popular way of organizing the information on the Internet is the use of tag-based system. With regards to the cyberspace, the term ‘tag’ has two meanings: Firstly, it refers to the beginning and ending parts of elements in the HTML language used in web design24. Secondly, it has a meaning of a ‘marker’ used to label Internet content with additional information 25. In the latter case, one could simply use the word ‘label’ to describe the function of the tag, when employed. The tagging systems are especially advantageous on websites with broad user community, namely in the context of collaborative tagging system − the users themselves create semantic organization of information resources by annotating the content with freely chosen keywords. The items tagged with the same keyword form a set, and therefore the tag or tag combination becomes the major organizational unit of tag-based information management. For example, when a certain picture or article on the Internet is labelled with several tags, by clicking on the tag the users can access similar content, which is thus grouped under this system. This allows the creation of much more precise categories than in more traditional hierarchic systems26, which require browsing in order to access a single file or specific content. Therefore, by employing the system of tagging, users themselves create and adjust the content. The ‘navigation’ towards the desired content also proved to be more effective with the employment of the tagging system. In the hierarchical system, the
23 See chapter 1.1. Internet Literature in China - Introduction. 24 Elements vs. tags. (2020). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_element#Elements_vs._tags 25 Tagging. (2020). In Textbroker.com. Retrieved from https://www.textbroker.com/tagging 26 In computing, the major building block of a hierarchical file systems is the directory as an organizational unit which acts as a container for tiles or further (sub-)directories. The content is sorted from most general at the top level to most specific at the leaf levels of the directory hierarchy (Bloehdorn, Völkel, 2006). 39 file resides at only one location in a strict directory hierarchy at the same time without being duplicated, therefore providing only one access path. The organization of information based on tags does not suffer from this problem, as the tags can be freely combined (Bloehdorn, Völkel, 2006). Simply put, the user can freely combine several tags according to the type of content they search for instead of following a simple navigational path operated by the hierarchical systems, consequently requiring much less time and effort for more specific searches. Tagging is a common contemporary practice used by many types of websites, even though it is mostly associated with social networks like Instagram or image hosting services like Flickr. However, tagging became common practice also on publishing platforms or online literary archives like Novelupdates27, which represents a decent illustration of how literary website can use tagging in order to create precise categorizing system, thus providing the users with efficient and convenient means to access their preferred content. When one clicks on a selected novel at the Novelupdates website, the following page shows some standard information about the work (name, description, author etc.). On the left side of the webpage, there is a column where a list of tags can be seen. This not only provides the reader with more specific description of the book, but since the tags also act as a navigation, by clicking on specific tag one can access works with similar topics. The tags used when labelling literary works generally refer to the topics and themes which the book contains − they can be genre-related (‘angst’, ‘romance’, ‘comedy’, ‘drama’), character- related (‘selfless protagonist’, ‘immortals’, ‘ghosts’, ‘wizards’, ‘mythology’), describe the fictional world setting (‘ancient China’, ‘multiple realms’, ‘magic formations’, ‘modern world’) or can be related to work’s multimediality and adaptations (‘anime/ manhua / movie adaptation’). The list of tags provided with each novel gives the user a minute description of the work, therefore they can quickly and effectively find out whether it suits their taste, or if they should move on to a different work. When we compare the tag-based system and the way Internet novels are labelled according to the genre, we inevitably notice a couple of similarities. Firstly, it is important to note that many literary websites use the tag-based system either as a part or as a main means of navigation on their platform. For example, when searching for a book on Qidian, there is a list of 14 novel categories on the left side of the main page. The user then selects different labels in several categories28, including classification (fenlei 分类), state [of completion] (zhuangtai 状态), attribute (shuxing 属
27 Novelupdates is a web archive that unites all translated literary works from Asia. Link:
性)29 , number of characters (zishu 字数), work-quality (pinzhi 品质), update intervals (gengxin shijian 更新时间), and tags (biaoqian 标签). By selecting labels within those categories, the user is given a list of works grouped under one query30. What happens then is that one is given a list of works that might fall under several categories, and that in the case of the (traditional) hierarchical system being employed might get forced into single category/location, simply due to the organizational setting of the page navigation. With regards to these facts, it seems that over the course of the history of Internet literature the concept of genre in the web-based literary environment have evolved into ‘summarizing category’ composed of individual ‘tags’. However, the tags by themselves do not necessarily fall under one specific genre. One could therefore visualize a genre as an ‘aggregation of tags’ or ‘tag-set’, with certain tags belonging to multiple ‘sets’ (genres). The result of this is that the Internet literature genres share a lot of common features and characteristics, despite the fact that Internet literature features an extensive array of genres and subgenres with rather strict genre conventions. Similarly, due to the various usage of categories, the same works can be categorized into multiple genres by different websites. I have personally encountered this issue when I first started to research Chinese Internet fantasy novels for my bachelor’s thesis, as the novels I analysed were commonly classified under several genre labels. As an example, the categorizing system on Douban website can be used. Douban31 (Douban 豆瓣) is Chinese social networking website, which allows its registered users to record information, and create content related to film, books, music, recent events, and activities in Chinese cities. It also uses the tag-based system, therefore it is possible to compare the tags used on different novels of different genres (as categorized on their original publishing platforms − in this specific case Qidian) and analyse the way the users themselves construct the genre categories. However, it is relevant to note that during the time of my research, I was outside of Mainland China, therefore was not able to gain member-access to the platform32. In the next part, I list the tags assigned to four popular Internet fantasy novels and compare them in order to illustrate the practice of the usage of genre-related tags for individual novels. The tags are listed in the order in which they appeared on the original websites. 1. Panlong:
29 This category signifies whether the work falls into the VIP or free category. 30 That is “intersection of the corresponding sets of tags” (Bloehdorn, Völkel, 2006). 31 link:
a. Qidian labels − ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本), ‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘qihuan’ 奇幻 and ‘sword and magic’ (jianyu mofa 剑与魔法). b. Douban tags − ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘Internet fiction (wangluo xiaoshuo 网络小说), ‘Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi’ 我吃西红柿, ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说), ‘Internet literature’ (wangluo wenxue 网络文学), ‘qihuan’ 奇幻, ‘China’ (Zhongguo 中国) and ‘Western magic’ (xifang mohuan 西方魔幻). 2. Shenmu: a. Qidian labels − ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本), ‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘strange continent’ (yishi dalu 异世大陆). b. Douban tags − ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘Shenmu’ 神墓, Chen Dong 辰东, ‘Internet fiction (wangluo xiaoshuo 网络小说), ‘xuanhuan novel’ (xuanhuan xiaoshuo 玄幻小说), ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说), ‘qihuan/xuanhuan’ 奇幻/玄幻, ‘qihuan’ 奇幻. 3. Douluo Dalu: a. Qidian labels − ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本), ‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘strange continent’ (yishi dalu 异世大陆). b. Douban tags − ‘Tang Jia San Shao’ 唐 家 三 少 , ‘Douluo Dalu’ 斗 罗 大 陆 , ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘Internet fiction (wangluo xiaoshuo 网络小说), ‘San Shao’s book, one of the classics’ (San Shaode shu, hen jingdian 三少的书, 很经典), ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说), ‘qihuan’ 奇幻, ‘magic novel’ (mohuan xiaoshuo 魔幻小 说). 4. Xianni (仙逆 Renegade Immortal) from author Er Gen 耳根: a. Qidian labels − ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本)，‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘xianxia’ 仙侠, ‘fantasy cultivation’ (huanxiang xiuxian 幻想修仙). b. Douban tags − ‘Xianni’ 仙逆, ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘Er Gen’ 耳根, ‘Internet fiction (wangluo xiaoshuo 网络小说), ‘xiuzhen’ 修真, ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说), ‘xianxia’ 仙侠, ‘awesome!’ (geili! 给力). Based on the featured data, we can observe the following: On the publishing website, standardly one can find 5 tags attached to the title on each novel’s main page. The first three mark the status of completion, the VIP status and whether the author has signed a contract with the website. As they do not contain hyperlink, and do not relate to novel’s genre categorization, they
42 are not relevant for the analysis. The next two tags mark the genre under which is the novel sorted on Qidian and the world-setting categorization. Qidian provides us with only one tag for each, therefore presents rather definite genre categorization for each of the published works. In comparison, the situation on Douban gets more complicated. The list of most-used tags in relation to the title is listed below the summary, author’s introduction, and chapter index. The list allows (unregistered) user to see the eight most used tags, usually marking affiliated genre(s), author, series33 and other associated keywords. Unlike on Qidian, the genres tagged here are usually multiple, although typically belonging under the same ‘type’34. It is interesting to note that although the four novels I used fall under three different genres according to the publishing website, all of them were tagged under the ‘xuanhuan’ label along with the ‘fiction’ label on Douban. Also, with the exception of Xianni, all of the novels also received the tag ‘qihuan’, which suggests almost 100% overlap between xuanhuan and qihuan, therefore pointing towards close relation between these two genres. Based on this evidence, we can safely deduce that fantasy-type genres in Chinese Internet literature are commonly interchanged among each other, as in the eyes of readers − the creators of the tags − the characteristics and themes appearing in these novels seem similar enough to be used somewhat freely. The concept of literary genre in the Internet literature discourse is a topic that has been dedicated a limited amount of attention from the scholars so far. One of the notable sources of information on this topic is, again, the professor Shao’s Wangluo Wenxue Jingdian Jiedu (Interpretation of Internet Literature Classics), where she analyses a selection of Internet fiction genres, their literary currents, subgenres, recurring motives, all based on analysis of representative Internet novels. The genre description and research based on novels published on Qidian provides Chao in her thesis Desire and Fantasy On-line: a Sociological and Psychoanalytical Approach to the Prosumption of Chinese Internet Fiction (2013), where she argues that all genres have a common intention of transporting reader into ‘dream world’ where they can identify with infallible heroes, whose all desires become fulfilled. Her findings are in accord with conclusions I drew from my own research − Chao argues that genre distinctions are in fact not as conspicuous, and many of the Qidian works she involved in her research could actually be belonging to a variety of genres, not just a single one. My own conclusions about this topic are based on research of relevant literary
33 Standardly, there is several entries on the same series, which is caused by grouping parts of the novel into volumes. Usually, for each volume of the series there is a separate entry, which can be commented and voted on by the readers individually. 34 The novels I chose for this demonstration all fall under the ‘fantasy’ genres I will further describe in chapter 2.3. 43 websites (namely Qidian, Jinjiang Literature City, Douban, Under the Banyan Tree and Novelupdates), reading the fan forums, and studying the literary sources − my own reading of the Internet novels. However, it is without a doubt that more extensive research is needed in order to draw more relevant conclusions about the way the concept of genre has been transformed under the influence of the new literary media in the Internet literature discourse.
2.2. Terms Relevant to Internet Genre Fiction Chinese Internet literature comes from a background of traditional Chinese culture, which then takes, fuses, and combines with other cultural sources, as was discussed in the earlier chapter. This results in the fact that Chinese Internet literature features certain specific recurrent themes. This chapter thematically connects to the previous one, as it discusses terms relevant to the Chinese Internet genre fiction and themes commonly found across all spectre of genres in Chinese Internet literature, which I argue are rather specific for this discourse. It should be noted, the further analysis and examples I am going to use mostly come from fantasy novels, therefore, the based- on-example structure model I will discuss here should only be applied on fantasy genres of Chinese Internet literature, as broader analysis would take me far outside this master’s thesis capacity. The chapter 2.2.1. explores the term according to the secondary literature, followed by my own analysis based on specific Internet novels. Chapters 2.2.2.-3. will summarize the terminology and approaches as described in the secondary literature and provide my own analysis of specific novels based on such approaches. However, due to the terms’ overlap and rather free usage in the cyberspace, I decided to summarize my own conclusions in a separate chapter 2.2.4., in order to keep them visibly isolated from approaches taken by other scholars, as they tend to contradict conclusions I came to in the previous chapter.
2.2.1. Jiakong 架空 − ‘Overhead’ Jiakong 架空 is a term that refers to fictional narrative settings used in novels, animation movies, games, and other creative areas. Again, it is one of the terms that are difficult to translate directly into English and are better understood within context. For this reason, I decided to use mostly pinyin when referring to it, but in cases where translation is better suited, I settled for the working term ‘overhead’ or ‘alternative’. Originally, jiakong used to refer to a structure of buildings in traditional architecture, for example the levels raised above the ground level (jiakongceng 架空层) which can be seen in Dong vernacular dwellings found in Guangxi province (Li, Smith 2011, 9-10), and in contemporary language it standardly refers to buildings built on stilts. As for jiakong in the Internet literature discourse, jia 架 refers to a narrative construction
44 based on certain setting, and kong 空 refers to a “world or history different from reality that is the fictional nature of the [fictional world’s] background” (Shao 2018, 271). Therefore, when talking about jiakong shijie 架空世界 (overhead world) in Internet literature discourse, one refers to a fictional world constructed from a specific time and space, while retaining certain similarities with the real world, and the real-world history. Most of the things that do not exist in the real world (or cannot be explained by science) − such as magic, witchcraft, alchemy or spiritual cultivation − can be established in the overhead world, as it does not have to conform to real time and history space, therefore it leaves more room for imagination (Shao 2018, 271). Based on this description, it becomes rather clear that the term jiakong shijie simply refers to any type of ‘fantastical world’, or world alternative to the reality, which is employed in the novel setting. The specific setting in jiakong varies in different genres − in the early genres like ‘salvation by transmigration’ (chuanyue jiuwang 穿越救亡) the original appearance of historical spacetime was altered, and the changed parts had no historical basis. As this genre evolved, this became one of the reasons why the historical transmigration35 (lishi chuanyue 历史穿越) genre is sometimes referred to as ‘overhead/alternative history’ (lishi jiakong 历史架空) or ‘semi-overhead’ (banjiakong 半架空) − the setting of the novel is such that the main hero is set in past era, where he or she alters the course of history (Shao 2018, 271-272). According to Shao, the direct source of inspiration for the jiakong setting in Chinese Internet novels is the fantasy role-playing tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D or DnD), Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and steampunk novels36. The use of jiakong elements spreads across both male-oriented and female-oriented Internet novels. In male-oriented Internet literature, the jiakong is featured mostly in novels with historical background, with famous examples like Shenzhou Kuanglan (神州狂澜, Raging Waves of the Divine Land) by Sheng Zhe Chen Lei 圣者晨雷 or Yiyu Rensheng (异域人生, Life in Strange Lands) by Xi Bei Cang Lang 西北苍狼. As for the female-oriented Internet literature, it could be said that the jiakong elements are used even more than in male-oriented, especially in danmei literature and in genres which deal with expressing more feminist tendencies that are generally difficult to pin onto the real world. For this reason, the ‘overhead world’ setting is often the only possibility in certain types of female-oriented literature which seems authentic in its expression to the readers (Shao 2018, 271-272).
35 See chapter 2.2.2. 36 Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy featuring advanced machines and other technology based on steam power of the 19th century and taking place in a recognizable historical period or a fantasy world. Source:
In the next part, I will introduce the jiakong elements featured in popular Internet novels based on my own reading. I selected two examples from male-oriented literature and two from female-oriented. The first novel I will discuss is Chen Dong’s Shenmu, which was already mentioned in the previous chapter. I chose this novel due to its world-setting, and also the fact that it carries the label ‘strange continent’ (yishi dalu 异世大陆) on Qidian. The fictional world of Shenmu is modelled after fictional fantasy worlds which can be found in Western fantasy literature, while simultaneously using fictional elements that are considered distinctly Chinese. Originally, this world contained two big continents, which got merged together due to earthquake in the split time between main hero’s death and resurrection, resulting in formation of one huge continent called Tianyuan 天元:
“Originally, only a single channel of water separated Xianhuan Continent and Mohuan Continent. A great earthquake had violently occurred at this link and pushed the two together.
Xianhuan Continent in the east and Mohuan Continent in the west each had great, unique civilizations. After the continents joined together, because of differences in culture and religion, the ethnic races of the two former continents experienced daily friction with one another. Along with escalating tensions due to their conflicting views, the two sides broke out into war” (Chen Dong, ch.2).
Each continent is described as having a great, unique civilization, and different ethnicities. The eastern continent called Xianhuan 仙幻 is described as being populated by ‘eastern’ deities, people, and other beings, so the reader quickly deduces it is modelled after China and represents the ‘Chinese part’ of the fictional world’s culture. With this said, the Xianhuan continent is inhabited by creatures and characters with origins in Chinese imagination. The name of the continent also points out this fact − xian 仙 means ‘immortal’ or ‘celestial being’ and huan 幻 ‘change magically’, and thus suggests a world in which the higher straits of society (or nature, in the case of magical beasts) are occupied by cultivators and daoists, who cultivate qi in hopes of gaining immortality. Therefore, in the Xianhuan continent, one can come across ‘celestial nymphs’ (xianzi 仙子), ‘running corpses’ (ganshiren 赶尸人), divine dragons (shenlong 神龙), daoists (daoshi 道士), martial artists (wuxue gaoshou 武学高手) and similar figures with origins in Chinese myths and vernacular fiction. The daoists and martial artists employ ‘true/vital qi’ (zhenqi 真气) while practising cultivation (xiulian 修炼), use flying swords (feijian 飞剑) and magical weapons (fabao 法宝). The second continent is called Mohuan 魔幻 (‘Magic/Demonic continent’)
46 and is inspired by Western culture and imagination. Where in Xianhuan the top was occupied by daoists and martial artists cultivating qi, in the western continent such positions are filled with mages and wizards using proficiency in magic as the main means of power stratification. Here, the reader can meet with characters inspired by Western imagination, such as angels (tianshi 天使), fire-breathing wolves (huituhuode lang 会吐火的狼), necromancers (wangling mofashi 亡灵魔法 师), sorcerers (mofashi 魔法师), holy knights (shengdian qishi 圣殿骑士), great dragons (julong 巨龙), and others. The important place in the power structure of Western continent is occupied by the Holy Church (jiaoting 教廷), and the practitioners (xiulianzhe 修炼者) use magic (mofa 魔法) and battle qi (douqi 斗气). The jiakong (in this case ‘fantastic’) setting here is represented by the ‘fantasy world’ set on imaginary continent filled with different races, magical beings and animals, wizards, knights and dragons, showing many similarities with the world setting of The Lord of the Rings and DnD. With the unique Chinese cultural elements blended in, and the protagonist himself coming from the ‘eastern part’ of the fictional world, which is based on Chinese imagination, the novel is quite typical example of the xuanhuan genre37. The second novel, in which I will analyse the use of jiakong elements, is Douluo Dalu (斗 罗大陆, Soul Land). Similarly as Shenmu, Douluo Dalu also bears the label ‘strange continent’ (yishi dalu 异世大陆) on Qidian. However, unlike Shenmu, the fictional world of Douluo Dalu features two separate realms. The first one has Ancient China world setting − it is set in jianghu in historical Ba Shu area. Here, we can observe an example of the overhead world (even though a very brief one) as described by Shao 38, since it was inspired by real-world historical location. The second realm takes us into another type of jiakong world, this time a purely fantastical one. It is placed on a fictional continent, where vast forests alternate with populated areas. The power- structure is determined by the spirit masters, who are divided by ranks according to their level of spirit power cultivation and is dominated by peak-level spirit masters called ‘titled Douluo’ (fenghao douluo 封号斗罗). One can find merely two races in the world of Douluo Dalu − the human race with spirit masters, and the spirit beasts (hunshou 魂兽), who also have the ability to become humans through spirit cultivation. The ‘strange continent’ in this novel is therefore a strange land modelled similarly as fictional worlds in Western fantasy, but despite its ‘westernized’ outward appearance, it still features abundance of cultural elements considered typically Chinese, such as the filial piety, martial arts, world of jianghu and others. In Douluo Dalu, the magic is
37 See 2.3.2. Xuanhuan 玄幻 - “Eastern fantasy” 38 See initial part of this chapter. 47 substituted by the spirit power, along with qi cultivation and martial arts, which both remain in the story as a special skill of the main protagonist only due to the transmigration setting. Jiakong elements employed in Douluo Dalu can be summed up as a fantastical world, which is inspired by DnD setting, and fictional worlds found in Wester fantasy literature, while incorporating various aspects of traditional Chinese culture in it. For the female-oriented novels, I have selected two examples of novels which have gained great popularity among readers in China and abroad. The first one is previously mentioned Modao Zushi written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. The fictional world of this novel is modelled after Ancient China39. The novel’s setting is placed in a world ruled by cultivators and their clans. Unlike in real historical China, the element of heavy bureaucracy was omitted, and the cultivation clans seem to reflect noble clan formation throughout Chinese history − they have strong provincial influence and there seems to be no central power entity (on the imperial level). Due to this reason, we could probably locate the era of Modao Zushi in the times preceding Tang dynasty, as we can find no mention of any central power reigning over this fictional world. The main plot − aside from the romantic story between two main characters − can be read as a power-struggle between different clans of cultivators:
“As the final winner of the hundred-year-long cultivational disruption, the LanlingJin Sect was the head of all clans and sects—its leader was even referred to as the “commander” of all cultivators.
Even before this, the Jin Clan was arrogant, admirer of extravagant splendor. After the years of being at the top and while strengthening the sect, it had trained all of its disciples to do whatever they wanted to. Even a slightly weaker clan would have to submit to their humiliation, much less a small, rural clan such as this one. This was why, although the people trapped in the nets were red with fury due to the mean words of the boy, they could not talk back” (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, ch. 7).
However, the clans remain removed from the daily life of majority of the ‘average’ society, therefore we can also observe the jianghu topos in the novel, the common theme of Chinese popular literature, namely of wuxia novels. Fantasy elements contained here include various themes found across many novels of the xiuxian/xianxia fiction, like flying swords, cultivation of ‘golden cores’ (jindan 金丹), demonic beasts, exorcism, raising of the dead and others. The novel can be found under the jiakong lishi (alternative history) label on its publishing platform (Jinjiang
39 The author herself wrote that the historical period she used is not a specific one. 48
Literature City), and gufeng 古风 (‘antiquities, ancient customs’), xianxia, and xuanhuan labels on Douban40. The novel is, in my opinion, a good example of jiakong description by Shao, as it uses fictional world build on real historical time-space with fantasy and imaginary elements incorporated into it. The last novel I will discuss is Shapolang 杀破狼41 by priest. The novel also falls into danmei genre, and is labelled as jiakong lishi on Jianjiang Literature City42, and ‘danmei’, ‘land under heaven’ (guojia tianxia 国家天下), ‘steampunk’ (zhengqi pengke 蒸汽朋克), ‘jiakong’, and ‘ancient language’ (guyan 古言) on Douban43. The story is set in Ancient China in the age of ‘great Liang dynasty’, after discovery of a commodity named ziliujin 紫流金 (‘purple flowing gold’) which is a type of oil that could be used as a fuel for powering different steampunk gadgets found in this fictional world ranging from military machinery to household items, and thus becoming crucial commodity for the empire. There are two main protagonists of the story - Chang Geng 长 庚, the fourth son of emperor whose mother was of barbarian origin, and Gu Yun 顾昀, who is imperial marquis and leader of Black Iron Battalion. Due the fact that Shapolang is labelled as steampunk novel and other elements featured in the story, such as the majority of the plot revolving around war of China against people of Dong Ying (东瀛, other name for Japan44), the barbarian tribes and English, the historical era of the novel could be located to 19th century Chinese Qing empire. The military struggle against foreign invaders, extensive bureaucracy structure, internal struggles for power among the imperial family members, intrigues and individual scheming in hopes of gaining fortune and power, and various figures attempting to turn emperor’s favour in their direction, all could be reflection of China of this era, along with the fact that the storyline walks the reader through the rise and fall of the fictional Liang dynasty:
“Since the invasion of foreigners, the whole country was in turmoil, the festivities and banquets have been greatly reduced. Up to now, the fallen Qi Yuan tower had not yet been able to be rebuilt. Xu Ling felt that he had not seen such a place that immersed in wealth like
40 Links:
this for a long time. ‘Fei Ying Pavilion’ was well-known in the local area, it was also being referred to as ‘Little Qi Yuan Tower’, although it did not possess the same vastness of the star-plucking platform and Yunmeng Grand View, its exquisite luxury was better by a level.
For a long time, the capital city forbade pleasure. This place was far away from the Emperor, no one would pay attention to this rule. The singing voice in Fei Ying Pavilion could be heard from across the street. Coming in and out of the building were all gaudily dressed young men and women” (priest, ch. 90).
The novel Shapolang makes an excellent example of the jiakong that uses the steampunk novel setting as its source of inspiration. The fictional world is modelled after real historical period and builds a story with fictional yet history-inspired characters, places, and events, with the added element of steampunk technologies. Based on my analysis of the four novels, I came to following conclusions: The ‘strange land’ world setting is predominantly based on Western fantasy fictional worlds, which mostly drive their inspiration from fantasy classics like The Lord of the Rings, with fictional world set on imaginary continent filled with various races, magical beings and employing some ‘other’ (mostly magical) element which plays important role in its power hierarchy. Such world-settings became something of a ‘jiakong staple’ in xuanhuan novels, and thus can be found in many of the novels of this fantasy genre of Chinese Internet literature. Based on this fact, we can deduce that the label ‘strange land’ becomes a summarizing marker for jiakong setting that is inspired by The Lord of the Rings and DnD in the male-oriented xuanhuan fiction. The ‘overhead history’ setting used in the two analysed danmei novels mostly signifies the fact that the fictional world is inspired by or modelled after various historical eras of Ancient China, which is used as a ‘base’ on which various ‘overhead/alternative’ elements are added − from the world of jianghu with various fantasy features to alternative historical figures placed in steampunk world.
2.2.2. Chuanyue 穿越 − Transmigration or ‘Time-travel’ This chapter will explore the description of ‘transmigration’ (chuanyue 穿越) by various scholars. During my research, I have come across the description of chuanyue as a specific genre by some researchers, namely as time-travel fiction (chuanyue xiaoshuo 穿越小说). However, I came to conclusion that treating the term as a motive/topos that frequently appears in Chinese Internet fiction is more effective. The reason for this is that I have come across the transmigration theme across various Internet novels of different genres, most notably fantasy, romance, and
50 history. This impression can be further validated by the fact that some researchers go as far as calling transmigration “a stock-trope in popular Web fiction” (Feng 2009, 21). As Shao said:
“With the development and enrichment of genres of Internet fiction, ‘transmigration’ became integrated as one of its basic elements. It has now become difficult for people to use ‘transmigration’ as basic summarization of the novel setting and has become more of a label that can be incorporated into analysis of a specific type” (2018, 265).
The ‘transmigration’ in Internet novels means that the main protagonist has come from a parallel space-time for some reason, usually by accident or by dying in his or her original world. The transmigration used in novels helps to set the YY narrative, with the contrast between original and new world bringing in more dramatic effect. The setting often places the narrative into modern and historical realms, and thus the transmigration is popular motive especially in Internet historical fiction genres. According to the novel setting we can observe different types of transmigration. In ‘historical transmigration’ (lishi chuanyue 历史穿越) the hero is transported into historical time and space (mostly in Ancient China). ‘Overhead transmigration’ (chuanye jiakong 穿越架空)45 means that the protagonist gets transported into different fictional time-space. Other types of transmigration include ‘group transmigration’ (qunchuan 群穿), transmigration from ancient times to modern era (zhanchuanjin 占穿今), and so on. The ‘transmigrant’ often possesses modern knowledge and memory, which makes him a ‘prophet’ (xianzhi 先知) of sort in the alternative realm. Along with common employment of golden finger in the plot, it draws out directly the shuangdian of the novel for the readers (Shao 2018, 263-264). The transmigration theme from the perspective of Chinese historical fiction discusses Lu in her essay Chinese Historical Fan Fiction: Internet Writers and Internet Literature, where she describes time-travel fiction as being defined by the main character, “who, transposed by accident to a different time, explores past and future. Time-travel fiction may include history, romance, and fantasy” (2016, 162). She further notes on the difference between the topic of time-travel in Western fictions and in those produced in China. The Western time-travel imagination (namely American, in this case) usually contains scientific thinking and a certain mission. In comparison, Chinese time-travel fictions have the habit of taking the historical imagination and make them into sentimental love stories, and generally tend to transport the characters to the past or future without any agency.
45 For more information about jiakong, visit chapter 2.2. 1.. 51
“Internet time-travel fictions take history apart, reimagine it, and re-employ it in the most playful and disruptive ways. History is turned into a historical cyberspace for unconstrained imagining and fantasizing” (Lu 2016, 163).
The time-traveller (transmigrant) retains ‘modern consciousness’ which aids him or her to gain upper positions in new fictional world’s society, along with ‘omniscient viewpoint’ and vast knowledge of the history. With the character’s intrusion into this historical realm, it is common for them to try and interfere with the historical development and change its direction. From Lu’s point of view, this represents “the popular desire for historical empowerment and for writing about and interpreting history. [...] It is both deconstructive and constructive reading and understanding of history. To writers, this genre represents an alternative way of historical imagination” (Lu 2016, 167). Duan, on the other hand, puts historical and ‘time-travelling’ fiction into one category, suggesting them being naturally intertwined with each other, with the addition of the existence of space-time compression element in the cyberspace, which he sees as the main reason for the popularity of transmigration, fantasy and similar themes in Internet literature, as such environment promotes more “spatialized perception of the world” (Duan 2018, 677). He divides the ‘historical and time-travel fictions’ category into two main genres - the time-travel fiction (chuanyue xiaoshuo) “in which the modern goes back to antiquity and the dead comes alive, or the protagonists may go back and forth in time and space” (2018, 672), and the alternate historical fiction (jiakong lishi xiaoshuo 架空历史小说) “in which the author creates imaginary times and spaces” (2018, 672). Transmigration is a theme that has often been utilized in so-called ‘stallion’ or ‘stud’ novels (zhongmawen 种马文), which are popular xiaobaiwen produced in male-oriented (nanxingxiang 男性向) faction of Internet literature, which Feng describes as “blatant male fantasies [...] they depict male protagonists, who, endowed with superhuman prowess, invariably change history and acquire numerous beautiful women in the process” (2009, 16). Similarly, transmigration is often employed in female-oriented (nüxingxiang 女性向) Internet literature as well, markedly in danmei novels (which are often seen as xiaobaiwen’s counterpart in female-oriented literature), as discussed by Feng in her paper Addicted to Beauty: Consuming and Producing Web-based Chinese Danmei Fiction (2009). She attributes the popularity of transmigration to Hong Kong writer Huang Yi 黄易, whose fantasy fiction Xunqinji (寻秦记, Tale of Seeking Qin) gained a large popularity among readers and was made into TV series in 2001. She also sees the transmigration element in danmei novels as a tool that is frequently employed in order to insert the wishes of women readers for independence and power in patriarchal society. 52
“Combined with the unique narrative conventions of danmei fiction, the employment of time travel demonstrates female users' productive reworking of the cultural import that is danmei and helps them to explore gender and sexuality under the guise of producing and consuming fantasy” (Feng 2009, 23).
In danmei fiction, we can frequently encounter a woman, who transmigrated into a man’s body and became a powerful figure. However, the transmigration element in danmei literature often tends to be used in order to create romantic subplot between two (mostly male) characters. In the following part, I will analyse transmigration element occurring in exemplary novels. Based on my own readings, I have chosen two novels, which feature the transmigration topic - Tang Jia San Shao’s Douluo Dalu as a representative of the male-oriented literature, and Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong for the female-oriented. Douluo Dalu is commonly classified as xuanhuan and falls into the xiaobai category, Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong belongs to the danmei genre with the label jiakong lishi 架空历史46 (overhead history). The story in Douluo Dalu is set in two fictional worlds. The first world is placed in jianghu in Ancient China, namely Ba Shu 巴蜀 (which refers to Sichuan 四川 area) in which the first life of the main protagonist called Tang San 唐三 takes place. Here, he was a member of martial arts sect called the Tang sect, where he obtained the knowledge of qi cultivation, martial arts practice and also skill in making the hidden weapons (anqi 暗器). Because of his profound skills, he was regarded as prodigy and obtained a rather high rank in the sect’s hierarchy. However, due to his violation of sect’s rules by sneaking into the inner sect and stealing the secret lore he was attacked by other sect’s members that cornered him, which in the end resulted in him committing suicide. After his death, he transmigrates into another realm called Douluo Dalu (‘Continent Douluo’, also the name of the series), in which the majority of the story takes part. The name of the continent hints at its world-setting − dou 斗 (to fight) and luo 罗 (to sift, sieve) implies at a world, in which one can advance through the battle. In Douluo Dalu world, there is no qi cultivation, magic, or martial arts. Instead, there exists a system, in which each person is born with certain type of battle spirit (wuhun 武魂). The battle spirit is able to manifest physically, and certain types of spirits provide its owners with the possibility to train and become spirit masters (hunshi 魂师). The system based on qi cultivation can be considered to be replaced by the cultivation of one’s spirit power (hunli 魂力), which is a method used in order to level up one’s spirit to a higher rank. After Tang San’s transmigration, he retains his memories from his previous life:
46 See chapter 2.2.3. Jiakong - ‘Overhead’. 53
“Though he came into this world naked, Tang San still possessed the greatest wealth: his memory. As Outer Tang sect's most outstanding genius, the methods of manufacturing Tang Sect's various mechanisms, including hidden weapons, were all engraved in his mind. In addition, he had made off with Inner Tang Sect’s rare manuscript that he had yearned to try for many years. While learning it, he had committed to memory and learned by heart Inner Sect’s Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, and with it, Tang San hoped to reproduce Tang Sect's brilliance in this world” (Tang Jia San Shao, ch.1).
Because he was considered a profound cultivator in his previous life, he also hopes to become a high-level spirit master in the new world. Being the main protagonist, he is described as extremely intelligent, crafty, and physically resilient individual. However, the knowledge he possesses from his previous world is what gives him the biggest edge and makes him eligible to become a true elite in the world of Douluo Dalu. By employing the experiences and knowledge taken from the different realm, he is having a significant advantage against his opponents and head-start compared to his peers in cultivation. Thus, one of the features of transmigration theme − “the modern/alternative consciousness” − can be observed in this novel, as protagonist’s knowledge from parallel realm aids him greatly in reaching the upper positions of the fictional world’s society. The dramatic effect created by the difference between the two different realms is also one of the typical markers of the transmigration theme. If we would attempt to assign the novel to a more specific type of transmigration, the most suitable appears to be the ‘overhead transmigration’ category described by Shao − the main character is transposed between two different fictional time-spaces, armed with his knowledge of different realm that subsequently acts as protagonist’s golden finger in the story. Even though one of the realms is equipped with the Ancient China world-setting, the novel omits any allusion to Chinese history, thus the novel does not fit the description of historical transmigration. The novel Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong presents the reader with slightly different mode of transmigration setting than Douluo Dalu, although the main protagonists of both novels transmigrate by dying. The main protagonist Shen Yuan is a die-hard fan and reader of Internet YY stallion novels, which he also comments and criticizes on online forums. Therefore, the first realm of the novel is set in modern-day China, in which Shen Yuan dies of food poisoning, and gets transmigrated into the last Internet novel he read:
“He had read many of Zhongdian’s transmigration novels and Shen Yuan had made a firm resolution early on. If one day, he were to wake up and discover that there was something off about the place he was lying down in, prior to getting an understanding of the
54
circumstances, he absolutely wouldn’t happily giggle and say “Are you filming a TV show? The stage props are really lifelike. Your cast and crew members are so cool!” these kinds of doubtful and weak-minded words that sought a sense of security. He was solely engrossed in acting as though he’d just woken up, his expression absent-minded: ‘I…… where is this?’ “(Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, ch. 1).
Because the main hero is a veteran reader of Internet YY novels, he is able to detect his predicament early on and act accordingly. The main plot of the novel revolves around the fact that he now resides inside of the body of the story’s villain, the scumbag teacher (shizun 师尊) of the main protagonist called Shen Qingqiu. In the original novel’s story, the main protagonist Luo Binghe was tormented cruelly by this villain, and in the end the hero avenged himself by turning Shen Qingqiu into ‘human stick’ by cutting off his legs and arms, and killing him brutally. Upon his transmigration, a voice similar to an in-game command system appears in Shen Yuan’s mind, establishing a system of ‘coolness points’ which he can gain and loose according to choices he makes and the way he behaves in the new world, thus effectively turning his new life into sort of a survival game, where he attempts to escape the fate of the original character. The frameworks and general rules of the YY novels remain in place. Therefore, as the main hero is familiar with the original storyline and is equipped with vast knowledge about YY novels’ conventions and tropes, he uses this to his full advantage in order to turn the plot around. However, staying true to the novel’s danmei nature, the plot uses a parody in order to mock the male-oriented xiaobaiwen, and similarly as if one plays RPG game, the protagonist’s choices and desperate attempts to ‘stay cool’ eventually turn the original genre of the novel from male-oriented stud fiction, in which the main protagonists obtains a harem of over 600 beautiful women, to danmei novel produced on female-oriented literature website, causing Luo Binghe to fall in love with him, instead of killing Shen Yuan in revenge. ‘Reader transmigrating into novel’ is a trope that is quite common in danmei literature, or in Internet fiction in general. Here, two fictional worlds are featured, one set in modern-day era, the other in fictional novel with Ancient China and cultivation world setting. Similarly, as in historical fiction featuring chuanyue the main protagonist is equipped with the knowledge of history, in Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong the protagonist gains the advantage by his extensive knowledge about Internet literature genre conventions and the awareness of original novel’s storyline. Therefore, he is able to gain the ‘omniscient viewpoint’ as described by Lu. However, as the novel stays true to the danmei genre, this concept gets ridiculed and results in plot development which the protagonist
55 was not expecting, subsequently creating an illustrative parody of the ‘prophet’ often seen in other types of transmigration novels.
2.2.3. Chongsheng 重生 − ‘Rebirth’ ‘Rebirth’ (chongsheng 重生) is another recurrent theme in Chinese Internet fiction. It signifies regaining life and resurrection from death. Within the Internet literature discourse, the typical description of the rebirth theme is that the protagonist’s memory and consciousness (or soul) return to the past body and live again (Shao 2018, 268). The concept of rebirth in Chinese Internet literature can be a bit confusing − generally speaking, ‘rebirth’ might point towards being ‘born again’ through religious conscience as in Christian imagination, or signify the concept of cyclical rebirth (or reincarnation), rebirth into paradisiacal realms, and other modes of transcendent existence, as seen in Buddhism and Daoism (Bokenkamp 2007, 161-162). However, in Internet fiction novels, we do not usually see this concept used in metaphorical or religious sense. Shao states that rebirth in Internet literature mostly started to appear in urban fiction (dushi xiaoshuo 都市小说) as a genre called ‘urban transmigration’ (dushi chuanyue 都市穿越), which hints at interconnection of ‘rebirth’ and ‘transmigration’, and the fact that they are often interchanged between each other. This phenomenon also occurred in female-oriented literature, where the labels ‘rebirth’ and ‘transmigration’ were often mixed. Basically, the concept of rebirth in Chinese Internet novels then borrows from the concept of transmigration47 and reincarnation, in which case reincarnation essentially refers to the human soul being transferable between physical bodies, and such process typically begins with the death of the original physical body48. Within the urban fiction genre, both in rebirth and in transmigration, the protagonist comes from modern era, therefore possesses ‘modern consciousness’, thus creating similar shuangdian in the novel, by the modern consciousness serving the main hero as their golden finger and makes them into prophets in the ‘past’ era. However, the process of transmigration and rebirth diverge because of the difference in the form of time-space travel. Whereas in transmigration, it is mostly ‘body and soul’ transposition across different realms, rebirth mostly involves just the soul that is returning to its own past body. As for the time element, in transmigration the ‘travelled’ distance is usually much greater compared to rebirth, where the protagonist usually returns to the age of his life (mostly as a teenager) and experiences it again. The fact remains that during the Internet literature
47 See chapter 2.2.2. 48 Such concept is accepted also by the readers of the genre, as suggests the blog entry Let’s talk about Rebirth in Chinese fictions (2020) by Hank Guo. Accessed on 15th of April 2020, retrieved from https://medium.com/@convivial_capri_gnu_777/today-well-be-discussing-the-concept-of-rebirth-in-chinese- literature-75e8dfbd11eb 56 evolution, these two types gradually got mixed together, and rebirth expanded to other genres [than urban fiction and female-oriented literature] (Shao 2018, 268-269). The fact that rebirth novels often seem to be referred separately from transmigration novels did not escape my notice, despite apparent overlap of these two categories. I searched for examples of popular rebirth novels on fan forums (mostly on Novelupdates49), and according to Internet literature publishing platforms’ popularity ratings (Qidian). Here are some examples of popular rebirth novels that I have not personally read: The novel Chongsheng Zhi Dinü Yaorao (重生之嫡 女妖娆, Reborn: Femme Fatale’s First Daughter)50 by Lian Shuang 帘霜 tells story of main protagonist, who dies in fire after being betrayed by her family. She is then reborn in her own body years before the tragedy takes place, and subsequently spends her second lifetime trying to take revenge. Diyu Xianmo (帝御仙魔, The Emperor Reigns Them All)51 from Wo Shi Peng Gao Ren 我是蓬篙人 is a story of a man from imperial clan of ancient Chang’an that is framed and killed. He gets reborn in the past as an ordinary man, and tries to reverse his destiny, prove himself by reigning as an emperor and avenge himself against the people who framed him in his last life. Yaoshenji (妖神记, Tales of Demons and Gods)52 from Fa Biao De Wo Niu 发飙的蜗牛 is about a protagonist who is killed by the emperor and is reborn as his 13-year-old self. He uses his experiences and skills accumulated from previous hundreds of years long life in order to battle with the emperor again and avenge his loved ones and himself. What can be observed from these three examples is that the plot in novels featuring rebirth seems to be often driven by revenge of the main character for the misconducts which happened to him or her during their previous life. However, the ‘type’ of rebirth used in the novel setting varies according to the affiliated genre − some seem to feature ‘return to its own body’ in the past, other times a different body is used, but usually it is one that already ‘exists’ and is not conjured from thin air. In the next part of this chapter, I will discuss the previously described ‘rebirth’ elements contained in exemplary novels. The first novel I will discuss is Shenmu from the author Chen Dong 辰东, which is generally labelled under xuanhuan genre, and falls into the xiaobaiwen category. The story is set in world which is divided in eastern Xianhuan 仙幻 continent occupied by magical beings and deities with origins from Chinese culture, and ‘western’ Mohuan 魔幻 continent with
49 Link to the forum I used:
“I… I crawled out… from this grave…” His eyes dulled and his mind blanked, as if his soul was spirited away. Lifelessly, he fell softly onto the ground.
“I’m Chen Nan, I already… died, but… I’ve revived…”
After a while, Chen Nan’s dull eyes gradually showed signs of life, revealing an astonished look on his face. “Heavens! What happened?! Since I’ve already died, how could I crawl back out from the grave?!”
“Could it be that heavens want this useless person to continue living a mediocre life?!” After his surprise, other than confusion, pain could be seen on his face. He shut his eyes and cradled his head” (Chen Dong, ch.1).
After some confusion, he discovers he woke up ten thousand years after his death and needs to deal with world that changed greatly from the age, he was last alive. The story continues with him starting new life in the new age, traveling the world in order to unravel the secret of his resurrection and simultaneously learning about the merged continents’ history, the modern languages, and dealing with unresolved issues from his past, which are the reason for his revival, as is revealed in later parts of the story. The resurrection in Shenmu seems to be ‘in reverse’ when compared to typical description of rebirth in Internet literature, as discussed in previous part of this chapter. Instead of going back in his own lifetime and reliving again his life from certain age, the main protagonist stays dead for several thousand years, and only then revives into his old body, which remained miraculously intact. The second novel in which I observed the rebirth element is Modao Zushi from Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, falling under danmei genre of female-oriented literature. The novel has Ancient China world setting with jianghu, cultivation sects, haunting ghosts, demons, and zombies. The main protagonist Wei Wuxian is a pioneer of ‘ghost cultivation’, by which means he obtained great power, and was subsequently feared and hated by the majority of the cultivation world. Unfortunately, when his cultivation goes wrong, he gets torn apart by the blood-thirsty corpses reanimated by him. The story starts with the main protagonist being revived thirteen years after his demise through bloody sacrifice into a body of certain lunatic, who after being abandoned by his own clan wants the protagonist to take revenge in his place:
58
“Wei WuXian received a kick just as he opened his eyes. A voice thundered beside his ear, “Stop playing dead!”
[...]
It was his first time hearing a human voice in quite a few years, let alone such a loud, fierce shriek. His head swirled and ears buzzed with the echoes of the voice, “Whose land do you think you’re living on? Whose rice are you eating? Whose money are you spending? What’s wrong with taking a few of your belongings? Everything you own should be mine, anyways!”
[...]
Wei WuXian thought wearily: I’m not pretending to be dead at all, since I’ve actually been dead for a couple of years. Who is this? Where am I? When did I do something as immoral as stealing another’s body?
[...]
A bronze mirror rested on the side, probably thrown onto the ground. Wei WuXian grabbed it and looked into the mirror, only to see a ghastly pale face, with two asymmetrical piles of red on each side of his cheek. Add a blood-red tongue onto the features, and he would look like a hanged ghost. He tossed the mirror to the side and wiped his face, finding his hand covered with white powder.
[...]
Taken back by the shock, some energy came back to him, and he finally sat up, noticing the circular array beneath him.
[...]
It turned out that, in fact, he did not seize the body of another—he was offered one” (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, ch.2).
However, most of the storyline is interwoven with lengthy flashbacks which give the reader clues about Wei Wuxian’s relationships with other characters, background of his life, the reason of his death, and also of his resurrection. The revival in Modao Zushi serves as a plot device. In order to accelerate development of the relationship of the protagonist with some of the other characters, he first must get killed. The story covers ‘both’ lives of the protagonist; therefore, the reader can witness the effect the hero’s supposed death and subsequent rebirth had on his character
59 and the relations with the other main characters in the novel. However, it would be wrong to state that the rebirth element in Modao Zushi served strictly as a device to establish romance. Protagonist’s rebirth also provides him with the means to right wrongs committed in the past, and shed lights on schemes, which caused his misfortune in his first life.
2.2.4. Chuanyue and Chongsheng – Analysis and Conclusions In the previous two chapter, I have provided the description of the transmigration/rebirth theme based on secondary literature. However, during my own research and novel analysis, I have concluded that the two themes do not necessarily exclude one another and share many similar characteristics. Let us compare the features of chuanyue and chongsheng listed in the previous chapters 53:
chuanyue 穿越 chongsheng 重生 ‘death’ (of the original body) O O ‘transposition into a different fictional world/realm’ O X ‘transposition into future’ O O ‘transposition into past’ O O ‘transposition into the original body’ O O ‘transposition into different/new body’ O O ‘modern/alternative consciousness’ O O ‘omniscient viewpoint’ O O ‘reliving one’s past’ X O As we can observe in the table above, the characteristics of both themes seem to be largely similar. The only difference I was able to spot is that during rebirth, the character does not leave his/her original fictional world, and I have yet to come across novel featuring transmigration, which puts the protagonist in his past to relive his life. In this line of thought, ‘realm traversing’ indicates transmigration. Aside from the difference in the ‘distance’ of the transposition, it was noted by some researchers that other possible distinction between ‘rebirth’ and ‘transmigration’ lies in their origin – rebirth seems to originate mostly from the urban fiction as a subtype of transmigration (Shao 2018, 268-269), and transmigration has begun as a common theme used in historical fiction, as suggested by various researchers (Shao 2018, 264; Lu 2016, 162; Duan 2018, 672). The fact remains that both types during the Internet literature evolution spread across the
53 “O” = yes, “X” = no. 60 whole spectre of Internet genre fiction and are used as one of the labels rather than one ‘overreaching’ category for the setting. Therefore, it seems rather safe to establish that rebirth and transmigration exist as two aggregates that largely overlap, do not exclude each other, to the extent of existence of crosses between these two types. As I was conducting my novel analysis, I have come across several examples of such problematic categorization. The first example is the novel Shenmu, which I was able to find under both transmigration and rebirth label. More specifically, Shenmu was categorized as ‘transmigration novel’ by Duan (2018. 688), but when searching for it on Qidian, it showed up after selecting the tag ‘重生’ (rebirth). Another novel with ambivalent categorization is Modao Zushi, which can be found variously labelled as xianxia54, rebirth55, and overhead history (jiakong lishi 架空历史)56. The transposition in Shenmu is done by placing the hero into his own body in the far future (after his initial death), where he revives and crawls out of his own grave. He does not seem to be affected by the lengthy period he spends ‘deceased’, and apart from his unfamiliarity with the changed world, keeps on with his life. The form of transposition in Modao Zushi is very similar to the one seen in Shenmu, as the protagonist is revived in his original fictional world years into the future through bloody sacrifice. Moreover, the comedy employed by this danmei novel twists this topos into ‘reverse version’ in comparison with the typical rebirth/transmigration description – the protagonist gets revived into (already existing) body of a stranger, as a consequence of an elaborate scheme of his former classmate, who hopes to use his revival as means for revealing the crimes committed by the main villain of the story, thus taking revenge for the death of his brother, who was also killed by this villain. After his rebirth he occupies a different body and does not obtain memories of the person, who previously owned it, and has no memories of the time he spent as a ghost. Transposition in both Douluo Dalu and Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong places the characters into a different realm, where they occupy a body of a local. In all of the above cases, the protagonist underwent ‘death’ before their ‘soul/conscience’ was transferred. ‘Radical transposition’ of the main protagonist, most typically done by ‘dying’, is thus the first of the identified characteristics of the transmigration/rebirth setting. ‘Alternative consciousness’ is another such shared element. In the cases of all of the analysed novels, the protagonist’s knowledge and memories from previous life/realm become his
54 Novelupdates, source:
62 novels with regards to this topic, therefore it should be noted that the conclusions I draw in this thesis are limited to xiaobaiwen and danmei only. The transmigration/rebirth topos spreads across most of the genre spectrum of Chinese Internet literature, and I have personally come across various male-oriented fantasy and danmei novels featuring the theme. Even Shao concedes the transmigration element being spread across various genres and becoming more of a ‘label’ rather than “summarization of the novel setting” (2018, 265), with special mention of historical and urban fiction. The above discussion shows the ‘tag-like’ usage of the term within the cyberspace. The ‘rebirth’ or ‘transmigration’ marks only one of the whole aggregation of labels, which make up the categorization of each individual novel (as whole). Therefore, using the term as individual label, which contributes to the whole collection of labels that subsequently create specific category for each novel, seems much more sensible approach than strictly putting the novels into one or another metaphorical ‘box’, even more so when taking the terms’ prominent overlap into consideration.
2.3. Chinese “Fantasy” Internet Literature Genres The aim of this chapter is to introduce and describe three popular Internet genres - qihuan, xuanhuan and xiuxian. The reason why I decided to analyse these three genres is that I have come across many instances, where they were deliberately interchanged between each other, mixed up or sorted under the umbrella term ‘fantasy’. However, as was already hinted on in the chapter 2.1., the usage of the terms in practice has proven to be quite problematic. Therefore, one of the goals of this chapter is also to provide clarification of the usage of the fantasy genre terminology in practice, and to bring light onto the meaning and ‘content’ of each term, with added discussion about whether it remains sensible to insist upon its usage. The phenomenon of genre-related confusion and the usage of genre labels, which is anything but uniform across the cyberspace, is hardly limited just to literary websites outside of China. This occurrence is discussed also within the online literary fan circles. For example, one of the translators for the website Wuxiaworld57 , who works under the pseudonym Deathblade, elaborates on the usage of the terminology on his YouTube channel in a video called What are Chinese fantasy novels (wuxia, xianxia, xuanhuan)? (2017). He argues that the usage of genre terminology in practice is mostly influenced by the length of ‘tradition’ of each genre, as for example the wuxia genre (which he also sorts under the fantasy umbrella) is known to the majority of Chinese readers, even those, who do not necessarily read Internet novels, as the genre has begun to appear in the
57 Link:
20th century in the ‘traditional’ form of printed books. However, he stresses that some of the newer genres – xianxia and xuanhuan specifically – might be completely unknown to some of the ‘older’ readers:
“The use xianxia as a term to define a fictional genre is relatively new and it’s the same with xuanhuan. So, a lot of Chinese people, especially if they’re older than maybe their 20’s, may have never even heard of it. For example, my mother-in-law, she’s pretty traditional Chinese person, she actually likes to read and likes to watch TV, but when I first told her that I was translating xianxia novels, she was like ‘what?’, and a lot of people are like that. I even see the terms kind of mismatched even in China, like in news articles and [similar] things” (Deathblade 2017).
His experience with his Chinese mother-in-law is actually in accordance with my own − when I was discussing the topic of my thesis in class with my Chinese language teacher during my stay at Chongqing University in 2019, the term ‘xuanhuan’ was unfamiliar to him and I had to clarify that it was a type of fantasy novel produced on the Internet. Deathblade also further states in his video that he does not consider necessary for the fans to “be able to classify every single story whether it’s xuanhuan or whether it’s xianxia, [although] the really hardcore fans probably can” (2017), even though he expresses an opinion that using either of the three terms (wuxia, xianxia and xuanhuan) as a “blanket term” to describe all of the Internet novels is incorrect (2017). The situation on the websites translating Chinese Internet novels to English mirrors the one in China. Let us briefly compare the genre labels assigned to two popular and commonly translated Chinese Internet novels - Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi’s Panlong and Tang Jia San Shao’s Tianzhubian (天珠变, Heavenly Jewel Change). The labels are listed in the order as they appear on the website: 1. Panlong: a. Wuxiaworld: ‘action’, and ‘fantasy’58. b. Readlightnovel: ‘action’, ‘adventure’, ‘fantasy’, ‘martial arts’, ‘romance’, ‘seinen’, ‘xianxia’59. 2. Tianzhubian: a. Wuxiaworld: ‘action’ and ‘xuanhuan’60 .
58 Accessed on 22nd of April 2020.Link:
b. Readlightnovel: ‘xianxia’, ‘romance’, ‘martial arts’, ‘harem’, ‘fantasy’, ‘comedy’, ‘action’61. From this example, we can observe that the novels received various labels on different platforms, which in the case of Panlong does not match its original Qidian category – qihuan – and for Tianzhubian, which is categorized on Qidian as xuanhuan, the label was only matched on Wuxiaworld. This further validates the non-uniform practice of Internet novels’ genre categorization. The three genres – qihuan, xuanhuan, and xiuxian – all fall under the “fantasy” category, and even though their usage in practice is certainly dubious, they were all previously described as a specified and separate category by various scholars. This is why I will first introduce all of the terms in separate chapters (chapters 2.3.1-3.) according to the secondary sources, as I consider them to provide essential information in order to be able to conduct my own novel analysis. In the chapter 2.3.4. I will then conduct an analysis of three exemplary novels and draw my own conclusions about this topic.
2.3.1. Qihuan 奇幻
The first genre I will discuss is qihuan 奇幻, most commonly translated to English as ‘western fantasy’. The main concept of qihuan comes from Western fantasy literature (written in English). In her thesis, Chao highlights the translations of famous Western fantasy books as works that had the most profound influence on Chinese qihuan, namely J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, along with the multiplayer role-playing online game World of Warcraft (2013, 145-146). However, Shao stresses the importance of the tabletop role- playing game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) that is popular in the United States and in Europe as the primary source of inspiration for this genre. In this game, the players sit around the table and each player is assigned a different character in a fictional world, e.g. skilled fighter, cleric, rogue, wizard etc. According to the instructions of the ‘dungeon master’ (the host and storyteller of the game), the players can ally with each other, and ‘go on quests’ within the fantasy world. The D&D novels, paintings and video games, which were later developed due to the original game’s popularity, occupied the mainstream status of Euro-American fantasy literature from the 1980’s to the beginning of the 21st century, and subsequently also had great influence on early Chinese fantasy literature, after its translation in Taiwan during 1990’s, and the official introduction of the game to Mainland China in 1998 (Shao 2018, 247). The qihuan fiction thus can
61 Accessed on 22nd of April 2020. Link:
62 I will elaborate on the latter two subgenres in the following paragraphs of this chapter. 66 stimulated the birth of xuanhuan and xiuxian (Shao 2018, 247-248). As the qihuan genre modified and supplemented the original setting of D&D, it retained some basic elements of the game − the aristocracy, the secular social structure of royal power, the church, the power level consisting of ‘mortals’, and the system of extraordinary existence. Nevertheless, the localization was still inevitable, as the authors cannot separate themselves from the current cultural trends of thought. Similarly, the readers more readily accept works that underwent some degree of ‘sinization’, thus works, where “western coat matches the inherent logic of Chinese culture” (Shao 2016, 51), started being produced increasingly more. In the western-style western fantasy subgenre, the classic D&D settings were changed drastically − the multiverse, which appears in the original game setting, is reduced to the three realms of mainland (dalu 大陆), demon realm (mojie 魔界), and underworld (wanglingjie 亡灵界). Similarly, the supernatural power system based on magic was simplified to a hierarchical system, and the system of nine alignments63 of the divine pedigree was reduced to ‘god of light’ (guangmingshen 光明神). After these modifications, the author is able to construct the projection of contemporary China into the ‘Ancient China’ or ‘Western Middle Ages’ fictional world setting more easily. The representative works for the western-style western fantasy listed by Shao are Xiedu (亵渎, Blasphemy) from Yan Yu Jiang Nan 烟雨江南, Moyun Cangmang (魔运 苍茫, Boundlessness of Magical Fate) by Rui Gen 瑞根, and Damowang (大魔王, The Great King of Magic) by Ni Cang Tian 逆苍天 (2016, 51-52). Xiedu is pinpointed as a pivotal work of the genre that started many trends and tropes, which are nowadays common even in other genres than qihuan, namely those that are considered its ‘descendants’. The novel finished its serialization in 2006 and the complete series count 19 volumes. Gender relations in Xiedu are established in three modes - possession, where women are considered as one of the spoils of the secular competition; dedication, where in desperate situation love gains a lofty value by transcending the worldly interests; and companionship, which usually ends up being pathway to the dedication. Consequently, during the serialization of Xiedu the phenomenon of stallion (harem) novels portraying women as a ‘loot’ of the protagonist started to occur within the male-oriented Internet literature. Also, the archetype of the ‘evil hero’ (e’ren yingxiong 恶人英雄) started to prevail after Xiedu’s serialization. Shao establishes three types of protagonists within the D&D based fantasy works - the ‘good hero’ (haoren yingxiong 好人英雄),
63 In D&D, alignment is categorization of ethical and moral perspective of characters played by the players, and other characters occuring in the game. There are two basic axes - law versus chaos, good versus evil. The nine alignments then are: lawful/neutral/chaotic good, lawful/chaotic neutral, neutral, lawful/chaotic/neutral evil. Source:
2.3.2. Xuanhuan 玄幻
The xuanhuan novels (xuanhuan xiaoshuo 玄幻小说) are presently one of the most popular genre of Internet fiction, and the one that is the most frequently produced (Chao 2013, 113-114). According to data provided by Liu and Wan in the paper What Are You Reading: A Big Data Analysis of Online Literary Content (2019), the xuanhuan novel production in 2019 was almost the double of the second largest category, in total making up over 30% of the 15 fiction genres published on Qidian (2019, 26). The term is said to be first used by the Hong Kong writer Huang Yi 黄易 in the late 1980’s to describe his own fantasy fiction based on mysticism (Shao 2018, 250; Chao 2013, 114). However, xuanhuan in the contemporary discourse of Chinese Internet literature
64 This type of hero was first established in Ludingji’s (鹿鼎记, Deer Cauldron) character Wei Xiao Bao 韦小宝. 65 Banzhu chihu trope refers to protagonists, who pretend to be weak in order to hide their true skill, and consequently gain the edge over their rivals and defeat their enemies. 68 became widely spread term that gained a different meaning compared to Huang Yi’s original use. The translations of the term to English include ‘eastern fantasy’ (Chao 2013, 114), ‘oriental fantasy’ (Wang 2020), and ‘mysterious or alternative fantasy’ (Liu, Wan 2019, 26). The general descriptions of the genre range from “fictional stories that combine science fiction, time travel, historical military, and martial arts elements” (Wang 2020, 57) to “a broad genre of fictional stories that remix Chinese folklore/mythology with foreign elements & settings” (Liu, Wan 2019, 26). Shao states that the basic sources of xuanhuan genre come from Chinese myths and legends, god and demon novels (shenmo xiaoshuo 神魔小说)66, sword immortal novels (jianxian xianoshuo 剑仙小说), and other Chinese traditional texts (Shao 2016, 94). As was discussed in the previous chapter, the direct predecessor of xuanhuan genre is qihuan fiction, which features fictional world built according to those seen in Western fantasy literature. Subsequently, we can observe the employment of elements with origins in Western cultural imagination also in xuanhuan novels. The fusion of elements from Chinese traditional culture and those inspired by foreign culture thus can be considered one of the prominent features of the xuanhuan genre (Liu, Wan 2019, 26).
“The xuan 玄67 in xuanhuan refers to the certain level of ‘abstraction’ (chouxiangxing 抽象性), which has no counterpart in reality. The depicted fictional world is one that is hypothetical, highly fantastical and separated from reality. This kind of fantasy is always based on some sort of abstraction build on reality, and the abstract fantasy world is where the readers’ desires are most convenient to fulfil” (Shao 2016, 94).
Xuanhuan novels once again feature the ‘overhead world’ unrestricted by the rules of nature and society of the real world. Due to the element of abstraction, the fiction setting can employ various elements of traditional narratives, such as already mentioned tradition of gods and demons or sword immortals. However, it is not in any way restricted only for the use of such traditional elements and can also involve the world built purely according the author's imagination. This gives way to accommodation of variety of YY features and is one of the reasons for the genre’s popularity (Shao 2016, 94).
66 The category was established by Lu Xun, and describes fiction featuring tales of strange (guai 怪), chaos (luan 乱), power (li 力) and divine (shen 神), which was popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Representative works include Xiyouji (西游记, Journey to the West) or Fengshen Yanyi (封神演义, Romance of the Gods). Source:
In a broad sense, xuanhuan is an equivalent to a high fantasy novel (in comparison to e.g. wuxia, which is considered ‘low fantasy’ genre) − story build on completely fictional world, wholly composed of fantasy. The genre does not have a dominant systematic setting (xitonghua sheding 系统化设定), and the mainstream online literature websites are extremely arbitrary in the division and classification they use, therefore it makes ‘xuanhuan’ a rather broad genre category, basically a big “type pocket” unifying most of the novels that can be described as ‘fantasy’ (Shao 2018, 250). Xuanhuan mostly features fictional world which outwardly resembles Western fantasy − well-known fantasy characters like dragons, dwarves, elves, fairies, or vampires living in gothic castles can be found in xuanhuan novels. However, the internal values remain Chinese, which is even more pronounced in the case of main protagonist. The element of transmigration is often employed, and the protagonists get displaced into the xuanhuan fictional world, armed with the knowledge of Chinese culture (mostly martial arts, and philosophical thinking). Chao sees the transmigration setting of many xuanhuan novels as a way to eradicate the physical alieness of originally Chinese characters transposed into the world modelled after foreign land. The protagonist is thus transplaced into the body of a local but remains strongly attached to his original “Chinese” identity (2013, 114-115). The most influential subgenre in xuanhuan is the dongfang xuanhuan 东方玄幻 (“eastern oriental fantasy”), which features stories built on fictional world ancient Chinese background and fantasy elements. Due to wide popularity of certain xuanhuan novel series, like Douluo Dalu or Doupo Cangqiong (斗破苍穹, Battle through the Heavens) from Tian Can Tu Dou 天蚕土豆, the term became synonymous with the ‘action levelling novel’ (rexue shengji xiaoshuo 热血升级小 说). However, Shao states that these two specific novels are not examples of a pure eastern oriental fantasy, as the core of the novels is influenced by Japanese manga, Korean and American online games, and the reader-group is influenced by the ACG culture. The usage of Chinese cultural elements is thus considered as a way to create a sense of intimacy with the readers, with the action and levelling served as the main course (Shao 2018, 250-251). The levelling (shengji 升级) is the most common factor applied in the xuanhuan novels. It became the most influential and mainstream type of setting used in Internet fiction, and generally started being referred to as the ‘levelling novel’ (shengji xiaoshuo 升级小说) or ‘xuanhuan leveling novel’. It is the fictional world’s basic setting, also common in other Internet fictional genres. It allows reader to experience the virtual thrill of levelling, thus making the levelling setting common within the shuangwen of Internet literature. The ‘level/rank’ in xuanhuan often points towards the strength of the character - in the beginning, it is based on body strength. However, it 70 soon breaks out the ‘martial art’ category and enters more ‘fantasy’ (imaginary) level after which point it gets increasingly more abstract. The logic and reality are generally subsidiary to the wishes and desires of the reader. Conventionally, a certain introduction to the fictional world’s setting (and the levelling system used) can be found in the novel. The system is usually very strict, clear and numerical, which is the basic difference between ‘levelling’ and other types of novels. Such trend of ‘strength quantification’ most likely stems from the influence of the online games, and, as Shao states, one of the predecessors of the levelling fiction is actually the ‘online game text’ (wangyouwen 网游文). Similarly, many of the xuanhuan levelling novels were later adapted as online games, with the examples of popular novels like Xingchenbian (Stellar Transformations) or Douluo Dalu (Shao 2016, 94-95). The popularity of contemporary xuanhuan novels considers Shao to be rooted in the modern social hierarchy in China. After the reforms, which started in 1979, the society in China became increasingly stratified. Therefore, unequal competition for the resources became one of the social concerns, along with the intergenerational heritage of such resources, which are accumulated among the people of the top straits of the society. Due to the population disproportion between the lower and higher social classes in China, a lot of pressure is put on the young people in the bottom social class, as the ascending channel is more or less blocked (Shao 2016, 96). The same opinion is shared by Wang in her paper Xuanhuan Novels in the Context of Consumerism (2020). She identifies the ‘pyramid hierarchical structure’ based on feudal systems, which existed in Ancient China, to be conceptualized in modern xuanhuan fictional worlds, and argues they are in fact a reflection of the social gaps between top and bottom levels of contemporary Chinese society.
“On the one hand, the “pyramid” structure solidifies the younger generation’s stereotypical view of society. On the other hand, the characters in fantasy novels have no choice but to struggle against people and fortune in order to gain greater wealth, power, and freedom” (Wang 2020, 66).
The fictional worlds presented in the xuanhuan fiction portray society which encourages competition, not unlike ‘the law of the jungle’ principle seen in qihuan novels. The protagonists standardly come from the bottom of the society. Their path towards success is thus full of struggle and hardships, as they come from ordinary families without any privileged background, which appeals to the typical reader of Internet fiction − the young people at the lower straits of Chinese society. The logic that only hard work and extreme effort can lead to breaking through different social classes is reflected in xuanhuan, along with the absolute priority of power when determining one’s position within the ‘pyramid hierarchy’. Another common trend in the narrative is that the
71 protagonist’s talent is just mediocre, and is only able to ‘ascend’ towards the higher power ranks with the help of rare magical artefacts or weapons, which serve him or her as their golden finger. The xuanhuan novels give the reader space to vent their frustration and anger, and the featured success stories provide psychological comfort, as the young, unprivileged people also wish to be successful (Wang 2020, 65-68). It has been noted before that contemporary Internet genre fiction follows the traditional popular genres, among which the influence of wuxia fiction (wuxia xiaoshuo 武侠小说) is the most evident. Certain motives recurrent in this genre − such as jianghu 江湖, xia 侠 or practising martial arts (wushu 武术) − are also integral part of contemporary Internet fantasy fiction. However, these motives underwent a certain degree of transformation. Shao recognizes two main dimensions of desire within the Internet fiction − surpassing the boundaries of the society and surpassing the limits of one’s body. In wuxia, the xia characters exist outside the norms of normal society, and wu 武 surpasses the natural limit of one’s control over their body. In the contemporary xuanhuan novels, these desires were inherited, and due to the influence of the cyberspace, they were pushed to the extreme. The violence seen in the modern cultural space can be said to have far exceeded the level of natural physical power, therefore the martial arts imagination portrayed within the natural limits of human body is no more able to satisfy strong psychological pursuits of the modern reader. Similarly, the decline of xia in modern xuanhuan sees Shao in the readers’ unwillingness to believe that individual heroism and physical strength can defeat corruption and achieve justice. The xuanhuan levelling novels thus replaced wuxia as the dominant imagination in popular fiction. The hierarchical social order extends to most areas of the life of individual; therefore, the novels establish the fulfilment of the collective desire in the fictional world by rising one’s hierarchical status. Elevating one’s level thus becomes the greatest pleasure, and the only way to realize one’s dreams and wishes. The personal power is being overly exaggerated − the characters in xuanhuan novels have ‘metaphysical’ (quroushen 去肉身) characteristics in order to display ‘victory of the willpower’ (yizhi shengli 意志胜利). Heroes often have unrealistic dietary requirements, the cultivation consists mostly of absorbing the ‘cosmic’ energy, which is paradoxically described as extremely painful process in contrast to the ease with which the severed limbs and broken bones sustained during fights are healed. The life expectancy is extremely long, and even the dead can be revived − death becomes conceptual. The extreme struggle that character undergoes in order to ‘level up’ serves as a method to gain more pleasure from the ‘success’. The pleasure mechanism of upgrading thus lays in the ability to overcome obstacles and achieve one’s
72 goal. The overt use of violence signifies the simplification of personal imagination, as the character simply faces their foe with the use of physical violence.
“The xuanhuan levelling novel only cares about how to realize reader’s desires. Under the levelling logic, the characters in the novel are always controlled by reader’s desire and cannot form autonomy. It is difficult to discover any antagonistic values in the cruel world described in the novel, and the values it carries again exacerbate the cruelty of the real world. There is no common pursuit of transcendence, which leads to extreme emptiness after reaching the peak of the power. This is also the biggest inherent psychological limitation of levelling novels” (Shao 2016, 104-105).
The fictional worlds in xuanhuan novels thus create a space completely separate from reality, in which the readers can vent their frustrations related to the reality of their lives, and where their desires can be fulfilled (Shao 2016, 97-106).
2.3.3. Xiuxian 修仙
Xiuxian fiction (xiuxian xiaoshuo 修仙小说) is another massively popular Internet genre. According to Liu and Wan, in 2019 the xiuxian (xianxia) production took up over 10% of all of the produced genres, thus making xiuxian novels one of the top produced novels (2019, 27). The name consists of characters xiu 修 (to study, cultivate) and xian 仙 (celestial being; immortal), therefore xiuxian is mostly translated as “immortal cultivation”. The other commonly used names for the genre include xianxia (仙侠, immortal hero), xiuzhen (修真, cultivation)，and xianhuo (仙 伙, immortal partnership), which all mostly refer to the same type of novels, and are freely interchanged with each other within the cyberspace (Shao 2018, 253; Ni 2020, 23). According to Shao, xianxia novel is a product of transition between wuxia novel and xiuxian, therefore bears characteristics of both. In the classification of most of the major literary websites, the term xianxia remained in use, although xianxia does not exist anymore as a separate category. Therefore, all novels labelled as xianxia are in fact the xiuxian novels based on ancient Chinese society (Shao 2018, 253-254). Based on her research, she also divides the xiuxian genre into four subtypes according to their world setting: ‘fantasy xiuxian’ (huanxiang xiuxian 幻想修仙), ‘classic xianxia’ (gudian xianxia 古典仙侠), ‘modern xiuxian’ (xiandai xiuxian 现代修仙), and ‘ancient feudal gods’ (honghuang fengshen 洪荒封神) (Shao 2016, 71). The xiuxian novels’ main topic is narrating the story of people that undergo training in order to become immortal. It is the type of fantasy genre, which displays the most local
73 characteristics, even though (as Shao states) it also evolved from qihuan. Apart from qihuan, the sources of this genre include traditional wuxia novels and god and demon novels (shenmo xiaoshuo 神魔小说), and European, American, and Japanese fantasy literature and art. The difference between xiuxian and wuxia lies in the importance of martial element in the plot − in xiuxian, even though it is still relevant to the story, it has been side-lined in favour of the process of cultivation of one’s immortality. Similarly, the story of jianghu and its residents, and the knight-errant (xia 侠) character is also not as important element in xiuxian novels. Cultivation (xiuzhen 修真) is a Daoist term, which original meaning implied the study of Daoist principles, seeking one’s true self while getting rid of falsehoods and retain the [worldly] truth (Shao 2018, 253-255). The true point of difference between xiuxian and wuxia is the emergence of clear-cut system of strength and cultivation. Shushan Jianxiazhuan (蜀山剑侠传, Legend of the Shushan Swordsman) is presented by Shao as a novel that had the biggest influence on the subsequent xiuxian novels, due to the established cultivation system and rich imagination. Another mentioned ‘pivotal’ work is Piaomiao Zhilü (飘邈之旅, Gone with the Wind), which tries to reconstruct the neglected ‘Eastern’ fantasy world, while at the same time influenced by the early qihuan novels. The novel uses the Daoist cultivation practice, which separates the process into ten levels. Based on prominent xiuxian work Foben Shidao (佛本是道, Buddha is Dao), Shao identifies three stages of xiuxian narrative, which are divided according to the cultivation process: cultivation by (mortal) people in order to become immortal, from ordinary immortals to ‘supreme saints’ (zhigaode shengren 至高的圣人), and those with saint status get involved with ancient gods’ annihilation (shengrende shenfen canyu fengshen yu mieshi 圣人的身份参与封神与灭世). The stages of the narrative originate from three important sources: Shushan Jianxiazhuan (蜀山剑侠 传, Legend of the Shushan Swordsman), Fengshen Yanyi, Xiyouji, Shanhaijing (山海经, Classic of Mountains and Sea)68, and the legends of Bainiangzi (白娘子, Legend of the White Snake) and Qixiannü (七仙女, The Seventh Fairy Maiden) (Shao 2016, 72-79). According to Shao, the basic elements of xiuxian fiction can be described as ‘strangeness， power, chaos, and divinity’ (guaili luanshen 怪力乱神). The ‘strangeness’ (guai 怪) is tied with the fictional world, which is different from reality and contains the supernatural. ‘Power’ (li 力) and its pursuit is the eternal theme of not only xianxia novels – the strength is the attainment of Daoism, and it is much needed, as the immortality is usually reached through the violence. ‘Chaos’
68 Shanhaijing is a classic Chinese text and compilation of mythic geography and beasts. 74
(luan 乱) refers to the constant desire to break through the limits and constrains of society’s morality. ‘Divinity’ (shen 神) is the basic premise of xiuxian novels, and the pursuit of immortality and attaining the god status is pivotal part of the plot (Shao 2016, 82-86). Another scholar researching xiuxian genre is Ni, who wrote the article Xiuzhen (Immortality Cultivation) Fantasy (2020). Similarly, as Shao, he points out the work Piaomiao Zhilü as one, which helped to spread the genre’s popularity. The main focus of Ni’s paper is the description of the xiuxian genre as reflection of religious revival in post 80’s China in the popular culture, which happened on the background of the “wuxia craze”, the popularity of qigong69 and the renewed translations of Western fantasy. The xiuxian novels supposedly “revive the ‘superstitious’ elements in early martial arts fiction and become what I call magical arts fiction” (Ni 2020, 1). The wuxia is, again, highlighted as the predecessor of the modern Internet fantasy in China, which he calls “the early form of Chinese fantasy” (2020, 3). The martial arts fiction of the 20th century is then discussed as a type of old-style fiction thematically tied to the xiaoshuo of the strange of the premodern China, which was primarily focused on conveying the Dao (instead of the Confucian ideology) and recording the strange. He notes that wuxia was (unlike qihuan or xuanhuan genre) disconnected from the early fantasy tradition of the pre-Tolkien era, and became the offspring of the old mythology and new literary technologies. The existence of xia − the chivalric knight-errant, jianghu − the autonomous space free from state interventions, and other traditional wuxia themes all found its way into the contemporary xiuxian stories (Ni 2020, 2-6). As for more precise genre classification, Ni states:
“Chinese fans wasted no time in embracing and transforming this new genre70, which bifurcated into qihuan (literally, the marvellous and the fantastic), specifically referring to Western-style fantasy written in the Chinese language, and xuanhuan (the mysterious and the fantastic), fantasy with Chinese characteristics. At the heart of the xuanhuan type is a new fantasy subgenre named xiuzhen (immortality cultivation), which draws from the repository of Daoist alchemy in particular and Chinese religion and culture in general to build an imaginary world in which cultivators pursue immortality through rigorous self- training, fierce competition with rivals, and strenuous fighting against monsters” (Ni 2020, 2).
69 Qigong 气功 is a secularized system of cultivation techniques invented by the socialist state, which developed into a mass movement in which people in China endeavoured to cultivate their qi in order to gain longevity and paranormal powers. The end of Qigong Fever marks the crack-down of the government on the Falungong movement in 1999 (Ni 2020, 24). 70 Ni means Western fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings series and Harry Potter series here. 75
Based on this short excerpt from his article, it seems evident that Ni considers ‘xuanhuan’ as the bigger category, which, in fact, encompasses xiuxian and makes it out as one of the “subgenres” belonging under the xuanhuan fiction. Ni argues that the enthusiasm for the qi cultivation practice transferred from the public space to the cyberspace, as he points out the short 3-year gap between the Falungong crackdown in 1999 and the emergence of the first xiuxian novels online. Allegedly, some of the xiuxian writers themselves are practitioners of martial arts and ‘inner alchemy’, whose techniques are associated with qigong. The Daoist symbols, ideas, and practices thus became popularized subject of the commercialization. The stories in xiuxian novels mostly revolve around the believe, which comes from the traditional Chinese cosmology − everything that exists is in a lesser of greater state of qi condensation, and through Daoist alchemy and cultivation, one can perfect one’s body (zhen 真) in order to reach the state of immortality (xian 仙). This can be done by the ‘outer’ alchemy (immortality elixirs, magic pills) or ‘inner’ alchemy (the cultivation of the human body) (Ni 2020, 7-9). Ni uses the novel Piaomiao Zhilü in order to showcase the narrative conventions of the genre. The entire novel takes the reader through the entire process of immortality cultivation with character development, plot progression, and world-unfolding divided into distinct levels. These levels are initially modelled after the three inner alchemy stages of ‘refinement of vital essence into qi’ (lianjing huaqi 炼精化气), ‘refinement of qi into the spirit’ (lianqi huashen 练气化神), and ‘refinement of the spirit into the void’ (lianshen huanxu 炼神还虚). In xiuxian fantasy, these stages have extended into a long list of cultivation levels, which are reminiscent of the levels existing in computer games. The ‘cultivators’ are then portrayed as climbing to increasingly higher levels by accomplishing difficult tasks, overcoming obstacles, defeating competitors and monsters. The main focus is thus placed on the body refinement (lianti 连体), along with the refinement of the ‘magical’ tools used in outer alchemy (qi 器), with the addition of medicine-making (zhiyao 制药), used in order to alter and stimulate the qi circulation within the body, and talisman-making (zhifu 制符) used to help the cultivators to manipulate the qi of magical objects to ward off evil spirits. Another convention started by Piaomiao Zhilü are the ‘numinous stones’ (lingshi 灵石), in which the transformed qi-energy can be stored and subsequently used in order to power the making of medicine, talismans, magical objects, and paranormal bodies (Ni 2020, 9-12).
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2.3.4. Novels’ Analysis, Comparison and Conclusions
In the previous chapters, I have explored the topic of xuanhuan, qihuan and xiuxian based on secondary literature. However, during my own research and novel analysis, I had concluded the rea-life usage of these terms does not necessarily reflect the descriptions and approaches taken by the researchers, which is especially evident in the case of qihuan. In the following paragraphs, I will firstly introduce three fantasy novels – Panlong, Douluo Dalu, and Xianni. Then, I will summarize my own findings regarding the genre terminology.
The novel Panlong was serialized in 2008 and counts 21 volumes with over 800 chapters. The author Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi 我吃西红柿 belongs among ‘the great gods’ (dashen 大神) of Internet literature, and besides Panlong wrote other greatly popular fantasy novels, such as Manghuangji (莽荒纪, The Desolate Era) or Xingchenbian (星辰变, Stellar Transformation). As for Panlong, it is categorized as qihuan on Qidian with the label ‘sword and magic’ attached. Chao also sorted Panlong into the qihuan category (Chao 2012, 146), however, Shao describes the novel as belonging to xuanhuan (Shao 2016, 64). In the next paragraphs, I will briefly introduce the basic storyline and the fictional world of the novel. The story of Panlong takes place in fictional world of Multiverse (Duoyuan yuzhou 多元宇 宙), which contains three realms or ‘planes of existence’ (weimian 位面) − the Yulan plane (Yulan weimian 玉兰位面), the Infernal realm (Diyu 地狱), and the Ghost realm (Mingjie 冥界). The main protagonist Linley 林雷 is born on the Yulan plane into the currently decrepit clan of once- legendary ‘Dragonblood Warriors’ (longxue zhanshi 龙血战士), which he hopes to reclaim its former glory for. However, the main theme of the novel series could be summarized as the pursuit of unrivalled, sovereign power. The protagonist strives to become warrior and mage unparalleled in power, in order to fulfil all of his wishes and ambitions. After fulfilling his resolution to rebuild his clan’s status, which he achieved through rigorous training of magic and cultivating his battle skills, the plot starts to revolve around pursuit of unparalleled power and achieving godhood. The hero then travels through different planes in the Multiverse, takes revenge for the death of his friends and family, and unveils the mystery of the origin of his clan. The story is ended with apotheosis of the protagonist, who becomes the most powerful being in the entire Multiverse. The fictional world of Panlong is populated by main four races of people, magical beasts (moshou 魔兽), divine beasts (shenmoshou 神魔兽) and the ghosts (youling 幽灵). The fifth race are the descendants of the four ultimate warriors (sida zhongji zhanshi 四大终极战士), among
77 which the clan of the protagonist also belongs. The ‘pyramid hierarchy’ can be observed in the world of Panlong, and one’s position is decided by personal power and battle prowess. Therefore, the base of the pyramid is occupied by ‘ordinary’ people, who are unable to train as warriors or mages. Only those that are able to reach the highest levels of cultivation, and obtain immeasurable power reach the top, and along with the status of power gain fortune and fame. In the world of Panlong, the path towards power lays in the qi cultivation and training, through which the people and magical beasts obtain special (battle) skills – the levelling system is therefore one of the key elements of the novel’s plot setting. One usually chooses between training for warriors (zhanshi 战士), where he or she cultivates battle qi (douqi 斗气) while consulting the training manuals (douqi midian xiulian 斗气密典修炼) written according to experiences of the ancestors, or studies magic in order to become mage (mofashi 魔法师), for which one has to have inborn talent, e.g. have affinity with one of the natural elements (yuansu qinheli 元素亲和力) and have sufficient levels of spiritual essence (jingshenli 精神力). Both warriors and mages are divided into 9 ranks according to their level of skills and cultivation. After rising above the 9th rank, one obtains immortality, and might become god through attaining divine spark (shenge 神格). When one reaches the ‘god’ level, which is once again hierarchically divided by many different ranks of power, the element deciding one’s rank becomes the level of understanding of the natural laws of the Multiverse. In case of the main protagonist, this was taken to the absolute extreme level and he was able to break through the bounds of the Multiverse cosmos (yuzhou 宇宙), and meet Multiverse’s creator, subsequently becoming creator of another cosmos himself. Throughout the novel, reader is met with descriptions of fictional world modelled after foreign land, similar to fictional worlds introduced in Western fantasy literature − there are fantastical continent, medieval cities, wild mountains populated by magical animals. Similarly, the appearance of the majority of the characters is portrayed as non-chinese, and the protagonist himself is described as caucasian. A lot of the names are the phonetic transcription of foreign names, e.g. Clayde (Kelaide 克莱德), Cesar (Xisai 希赛), Alice (Ailisi 艾丽斯), and others. Another fact pointing towards the Western fantasy influence, is the employment of the well-known motives, such as the magic ring and the wizarding school, along with the existence of secular power-structures (e.g. Fenlai kingdom [Fenlai wangguo 芬莱王国] or O’Brian empire [Aobulai’en 奥布莱恩]), each containing their own aristocracy and royalty. Furthermore, the typical ‘church’ element is represented by organizations like Holy Union (Shensheng tongmeng 神圣同盟) or Church of Darkness (Hei‘an jiaoting 黑暗教廷), which followership is actually one
78 of the power-determining factors of lesser gods, since they receive the ‘spiritual’ energy from prayers of their worshipers. And lastly, the ‘system of extraordinary existence’ in Panlong is represented by the complicated system of demigods, gods, [god] sovereigns (zhushen 主神) and others. The novel Douluo Dalu (斗罗大陆, Soul Land) was serialized in 2008. It has 336 chapters organized in 48 volumes. The author Tang Jia San Shao 唐家三少 is referred to as one of the great gods of Internet literature, and is said to contemporarily be the richest Internet writer, and also the first Internet writer to be elected as a committee member of China Writer Association71. He also produced other popular novel series, such as Jiushen (酒神, The God of Wine) and Tianzhubian (天珠变, Heavenly Jewel Change). Douluo Dalu is classified as xuanhuan on Qidian, with the label ‘strange continent’ (yishi dalu 异世大陆). In the next paragraph, I will briefly introduce the novel’s storyline and the fictional world. The story begins with the suicide of the main protagonist Tang San, when he was 29 years old. He is reborn into the world of Continent Douluo, where the martial arts and qi cultivation does not exist, and is substituted with the magical system of cultivating one’s spirit power in order to manifest and manipulate battle spirits, which every person is born with. The power hierarchy of this world is occupied by spirit masters ranked according to the level of their spirit cultivation. The novel’s main theme is the search for identity within the new world. The motive of family love also pervades the storyline, as the protagonist displays unconditional filial piety towards his biological father, and also develops close bonds with his teacher and classmates. One of the main plots of the novel is the tragedy and self-sacrifice of Tang San’s mother, which she underwent in order to save him and his father from the enemy organization Spirit Hall. The love story between the protagonist and another main character, his childhood friend Xiao Wu, also occupies prominent place in the story, and they have to overcome many challenges and turns of fate before they get their happy end. The story ends with Tang San defeating the main enemy, thus avenging the wrongs committed on his loved ones and subsequently becoming the most powerful god within the fictional world. In the fictional world of Douluo Dalu, each individual is born with certain type of battle spirit, which has the ability of physical manifestation. The position within the hierarchy is decided by the level of skill in manipulation of those battle spirits. The spirit masters are divided into 99 ranks according to their skill and amount of cultivated spirit power, which they can increase by training and cultivation practice. After every 10th rank, the spirit masters have to travel to the deep
71 Source:
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"Spirit Masters all possess their own spirit power. Based on spirit power intensity, these are subdivided into ten general titles. Each title is further subdivided into ten ranks. At first after only crossing the threshold, one is called Spirit Scholar. As soon as a spirit awakens, everyone is a spirit scholar. In the event that the spirit is capable of cultivation, when the spirit power reaches the eleventh rank, one can enter the next title, which in that case is Spirit Master. And Spirit Grandmaster, it is the third in this sequence of titles. Having reached the Spirit Grandmaster realm, one already is a fairly famed Spirit Master. There are a total of ten [categories] like this” (Tang Jia San Shao, ch. 2).
“Grandmaster said: Nothing is definite, some tool spirits can become battle spirits. [...] Every spirit master has a growth direction: food system, detection system, battle system, healing system, controlling system and so on and so forth. Right now, before obtaining a spirit ring, you must first quickly decide on your spirit’s future growth direction. A spirit master’s spirit cultivation must have a direction in which to develop” (Tang Jia San Shao, ch. 6).
The ‘pyramid hierarchy’ of the fictional world is also featured in Douluo Dalu. The bottom of the society is occupied by those with low-level spirits, and only by gaining sufficient power can each individual ‘level up’ and raise through the power ranks of spirit masters, gain good social standing and financial security. The top of the pyramid is occupied by the most powerful spirit masters − the Title Douluo and those that attained the god status. The competition for power seems to be the norm, as one of the main cultural events of the fictional world are the spirit master championship, where students of different academies compete in their skills as spirit masters. The novel Xianni (仙逆, Renegade Immortal) from author Er Gen 耳根 was serialized in 2009-2012 and counts 2088 chapters organized into 13 volumes. The author is often titled ‘pillar’ of the xiuxian genre and is a traditional Chinese culture enthusiast – he has a collection of ‘ancient- style’ swords, lives in a home decorated in ‘ancient Chinese’ style, and practices ‘immortal’ cultivation72. Besides Xianni, his other popular works include Woyu Fengtian (我欲封天, I Shall Seal the Heavens), Yinian Yonghuan (一念永桓, A Will Eternal) or Tianni (天逆, Against Heaven). Xianni is classified as xianxia 仙侠 on Qidian, with the label ‘fantasy immortal cultivation’
72 Based on the interview with Er Gen from 2015. Available from: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=mxUvD2TEeF8&feature=emb_logo> 81
(huanxiang xiuxian 幻 想修仙 ). In the next paragraph, I will briefly introduce the novel’s storyline73 and the fictional world. The novel’s fictional world is modelled after ancient China and is divided among various countries and contains several continents. The countries themselves are ranked according to the level of cultivators who inhabit them from 1 to 5. However, the most important players in the fictional world’s power structure are the cultivators, who commonly organize themselves into cultivation sects. The main protagonist Wang Lin is an ordinary boy with loving parents. After being rejected from the local cultivation sect for the lack of apparent talent, he runs away from home, manages to fall from a cliff and ends up in a cave, where he finds a mysterious bead. After his rescue, he is recruited by the cultivation sect as an honorary disciple, as his fall appeared to others as suicide attempt, and the sect was unwilling to bear a reputation of forcing a child to suicide. He continues the cultivation in the sect, with the help of the mysterious bead. The bead contains a great amount of spiritual energy, and is tied with a soul of powerful cultivator, who agrees to help Wang Lin and shares effective cultivation techniques with him. This makes up for his own lack of talent, and therefore he needs to hide his true abilities, until he is strong enough that other cultivators pose him no threat and are unable to steal the bead off him. After some time, his original sect is destroyed by a stronger one, and Wang Lin leaves with no intention of return. The rest of the storyline is dedicated to his cultivation process, heroic deeds, slaying monsters, and defeating enemies. The cultivation process of the protagonist occupies a great portion of the novel’s plotline, and the cultivation system is quite complex – it consists of Five Steps of immortality cultivation. The First Step is the ‘qi condensation’ (ningqi 凝气), which is divided into 15 layers and is done by absorbing spiritual energy. When one reaches the 15th layer, he/she starts the ‘foundation establishment’ (zhuji 筑基), during which the accumulated spiritual energy refines the body, so it is more suited for further cultivation. Next, the spiritual core (jiedan 结丹) is formed, after which the ‘nascent soul’ (yuanying 元婴) is produced by breaking the core. The steps that follow are ‘soul formation’ (huashen 化神), ‘soul transformation’ (yingbian 婴变), and others that the cultivator undergoes in order to build foundation for grasping the ‘natural law’ in the Second Step. During the Second Step, one builds his own ‘Dao essence’ based on natural elements and uses it to break through into the Third Step, and so on, until reaching the highest Fifth Step. Each ‘Step’ consists of several stages, which require strenuous cultivation in order to reach the next one.
73 I have finished the first 100 chapters of the novel, therefore, any information about the further storyline was accessed through online fan forums. 82
The ‘cultivation world’ in the fictional world of Xianni exists separated from the ordinary people, who are unable to practice cultivation. The ‘pyramid hierarchy’ model of the fictional world’s society is clearly evident in the novel, as the cultivation sects and the cultivators themselves occupy the top positions of the social hierarchy. Similarly, the ‘law of the jungle’ is once again elevated above morality, as the stronger pray on the weak with no retribution. Upon his arrival to the sect, the protagonist gets bullied right away from the overseeing disciple:
“He was secretly called to the place where disciples get their work assigned and saw a shifty looking youth. The youth’s face was full of contempt. He looked at him and laughed. “So you are Wang Lin, the kid that got to be a disciple by suiciding?”
Wang Lin silently looked at the youth challenging him. The youth sneered, “Boy, starting tomorrow morning you come to me for work. Your job is to fetch water, no less than ten vats a day. If you can’t finish the work, then no food for you, and if you continue for 7 days then I’ll tell the elders to kick you out of the sect. These are your clothes. Remember, honorary disciples can only wear gray. Once you are a true disciple, you will be assigned other colours.” After he finished talking, he tossed the clothes to Wang Lin and closed his eyes.
[…]
Zhang Hu had a bitter smile. He said, “You must have offended the yellow weasel. The vats he is talking about is the size of this room, filling up ten vats… Wang Lin I won’t eat these sweet potatoes, you keep them. You’ll be lucky to get food every 4 to 5 days. You are new here, and all the foraging spots in the mountain are taken. Only the elder disciples can pick them. Tomorrow, I’ll just eat my wild fruits.” He placed the remaining sweet potatoes on the table, sighed, laid down on his bed, and fell asleep.
Wang Lin felt rage surge through him, but then he thought of his parent’s eyes filled with expectations and forced down his rage. He laid down on the bed asleep full of rage” (Er Gen 2012, ch. 10-11).
After he raises through the cultivation ranks, the situation turns opposite, and those who previously tormented Wang Lin start trying to appeal to him, as in case he decided to revenge himself, nobody from the sect would try to oppose to him. Another important element in the plot is the resilience of the main character, which – along with the employed golden finger (the magical
83 bead and the ‘system grandpa’74) – is key in order to make up for the character’s lack of natural talent for cultivation. Wang Lin seemingly has no other interests than cultivating and spends the majority of his time in training. The ‘victory of the willpower’ aspect is thus very prominent in Xianni and is mentioned several times throughout the story, along with the ‘metaphysical’ characteristics of the cultivators’ bodies. For example, when one undergoes the training and is absorbing the spiritual energy, it is sufficient for the body to sustain itself only on this absorbed energy, and the characters thus show dietary requirements that are anything but realistic. The protagonist himself went into ‘closed-door’ training in a sealed cave for four years, during which he had no need for food or water.
Based on the introduction and brief analysis of the three novels above, I was able to find many conventions and elements mentioned by the researchers in the secondary literature. However, even though the novels were published under various labels, their characteristics remain largely similar. Given the fact that Shao considers qihuan as the direct predecessor of the younger fantasy genres (xiuxian and xuanhuan), it raises the question of what is the exact difference between these genres, which in case of xuanhuan and qihuan is especially exigent. The statement that xuanhuan is story build on western fictional fantasy world with incorporated elements from Chinese imagination/culture comes across as simply problematic, given the fact that elements of Chinese culture can just as well be observed in qihuan stories. Some of the further arguments for these categories state that the degree of localization in xuanhuan is greater than in qihuan, which stays truer to the ‘western’ fantasy model. However, the quantification of said ‘degree of localization’ is problematic to say the least, which in my opinion renders this point void. For this reason, I find it more beneficial to first compare the available novels and, on that basis, to establish a general framework of the qihuan/xuanhuan and possibly xiuxian genre, or in other words, summarize what do the novels have in common. In my bachelor’s thesis, I have observed the narrative pattern based on the two novels – Panlong and Douluo Dalu:
- The main protagonist, who is an ordinary boy from unprivileged background, is born (or transmigrates) into a world dominated by powerful wizards and warriors. He wishes to be successful, and to bring fame and fortune to his family. Therefore, he sets off on journey towards becoming powerful mage/warrior.
74 See chapter 1.3.3. 84
- The potential of the protagonist is discovered. He is accepted as a student to some form of academia, where he meets with allies and friends, which will accompany him on the future adventures. In this phase, the golden finger is often obtained by the protagonist, mostly in a form of rare artifact, powerful magical object, or knowledgeable teacher. - The protagonist turns prodigy and becomes famous. He uses his skill in order to obtain fortune and material possessions. - Then he usually unearths some crime, scheming or wrongs committed on his family, loved ones or himself. He swears to take revenge, however, more training is needed in order to defeat the powerful enemy. - The protagonist goes on a solo journey to become stronger. After a long time of training and cultivation, he returns back to his family and friends. - He continues to rise in his social standing, keeps on expanding his fortune and power. He does not cease in doing heroic deeds and keeps on his path to reach the peak of skill in martial arts and magic. - The protagonist defeats all of his enemies and executes the revenge. The narrative ends with apotheosis or another elevated status - the hero reaches the absolute peak of power hierarchy of the fictional world (Mašková 2017, 22-23).
When we compare this pattern with the one that proposes Chao in her thesis for qihuan, we can observe it is almost identical, albeit her version is more simplified:
- The ordinary person/underdog becomes the prodigy with the external help (golden finger). - The hero takes off on adventures and the path towards sovereignty. This part takes up most of the narrative. - The hero is gloriously elevated through apotheosis (Chao 2013, 146-147).
As for the xiuxian narrative pattern, it has been mentioned by Ni that in the beginning of the novel, the protagonist is an ordinary human without any special talent or ability, who eventually cultivates himself into the most powerful being of the fictional world, and in the end becomes “the new cosmic order” (Ni 2020, 14), i.e. the most powerful cultivator of the fictional world; therefore it also follows the familiar pattern underdog – prodigy – apotheosis. The storyline in Xianni also follows this model, as the protagonist is rendered unworthy of the cultivator’s path in the beginning, but due to the external help of the magical artifact and knowledgeable teacher is then able to break through the power hierarchy and become the ultimate cultivator. On the basis of these facts, it is safe to assume that the pattern ‘underdog − prodigy − apotheosis’/ ‘mortal – supreme
85 saint – new cosmic order’, which was more minutely described in the previous paragraphs, can be considered the general pattern of the Chinese Internet fantasy fiction (and possibly xiaobaiwen). Moreover, Internet fantasy fiction shares several conventions, which Shao mentioned as being established by the ‘early’ fantasy genre qihuan – the golden finger, shuangdian emphasis, the ‘pretend to be a pig in order to eat the tigers’ trope, the abuse of the main character in order to induce shuang during the plot, the narrative of rebellion and revenge, and the ‘law of the jungle’ prevailing above the sense of morality. I was able to observe all of these themes in the exemplary novels: In both Panlong and Xianni, the protagonist finds a rare magical artifact by chance, and both of those objects are tied to the soul of powerful teacher. Different type of golden finger contains Douluo Dalu, where it is represented by the protagonist’s skills and knowledge from his past life. All of the novels contain numerous scenes of gruesome cultivation and training, thrilling battles, and monster slaying, all of which appeal to the sense of thrill incited by reading such scenes. The protagonists all pretend at some point to be weaker than they actually are, in order to gain the edge and the advantage of surprise. They are required to undergo extreme difficulties in order to achieve their goals, being it by the means of extremely gruesome and painful cultivation/training, heartbreak, or loss of a loved one (or the usual combination of all). Such themes are naturally followed by those of revenge (for the misconducts caused to them) and rebellion against the current power structures. In Panlong, Linley declines against joining any of the existing institutions, and founds his own empire. In Douluo Dalu, Tang San is driven by the desire to revenge his parents, and in order to accomplish this, he must defeat and destroy the representatives of the organization, which stood behind the unfortunate fate of his father and the death of his mother. In Xianni, Wang Lin escapes the sect that overtook his old one, and hopes to become cultivator powerful enough that he will be able to protect his family by himself. Lastly, the ‘law of the jungle’ theme is apparent in the stories of all of the exemplary novels – the protagonists get picked on while they are still in the beginning of their training, and their friends and family are harmed by those with more power. The only option left for them is to become powerful cultivators/mages/warriors themselves. Other characteristic described by the secondary literature – the ‘truth of the world’ topos, which was mentioned by Shao as a theme commenced by the supposedly qihuan novel Xiedu, found its way into all of the analysed novels. In Panlong, the protagonist had to gain deep insight into the organizing structure and the inner principles of the fictional world. Only after this step, was he able to raise above all and to become the ‘creator’ of cosmos. In Douluo Dalu, understanding of the inner workings and principles of the elements is crucial in the cultivation, and the same is valid for the cultivation system presented in Xianni. This fact is especially evident 86 in the later stages of the training/cultivation, as the power scale of the characters becomes so fantastic and unimaginable that the ‘degree of understanding’ of the world becomes the more measurable unit of power for the reader. These are the conventions that are common in the contemporary fantasy fiction. Therefore, what we can deduce from this evidence is the fact that such themes became integrated within the set of narrative conventions for the whole field of xiaobai texts, which is further proved by the fact that I was able to find these themes in all of the analysed novels.
The last topic that remains to be discussed is then the actual usage of the labels ‘qihuan’, ‘xuanhuan’, and ‘xiuxian’. It was stated that the once popular qihuan fiction became seldom produced genre over the course of its history, and also that it is direct predecessor of other contemporary popular fantasy genres. This provides a reason for the mixed use qihuan and xuanhuan label within the cyberspace. As an example, let us compare the labels assigned to three novels published as ‘qihuan’ on Qidian with the labels assigned to them on Douban:
1. Xiedu: a. Qidian75 - ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本), ‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘qihuan’ 奇幻 and ‘sword and magic’ (jianyu mofa 剑与魔法). b. Douban76 -‘Internet literature’ (wangluo wenxue 网络文学), ‘Blasphemy’ (Xiedu 亵渎), ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说),‘qihuan’ 奇幻, ‘Yan Yu Jiang Nan’ 烟雨江南, ‘magic’ (mohuan, 魔幻), ‘classics’ (jingdian 经典). 2. Panlong: a. Qidian - ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本), ‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘qihuan’ 奇幻 and ‘sword and magic’ (jianyu mofa 剑与魔法). b. Douban - ‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘Internet fiction (wangluo xiaoshuo 网络小说), ‘Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi’ 我吃西红柿, ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说), ‘Internet literature’ (wangluo wenxue 网络文学), ‘qihuan’ 奇幻, ‘China’ (Zhongguo 中国) and ‘Western magic’ (xifang mohuan 西方魔幻). 3. Jiushen (酒神, God of Wine) from Tang Jia San Shao:
75 Unfortunately, 30th of April 2020, when I tried to access the novel’s main page on Qidian, I was unable to find it. However, the screenshot of the page from 24th of April 2019 was available from Baidu. Link:
a. Qidian77 - ‘finished book’ (wanben 完本), ‘signed contract’ (qianyue 签约), ‘VIP’, ‘qihuan’ 奇幻 and ‘modern magic’ (xiandai mofa 现代魔法). b. Douban 78 - ‘Internet fiction (wangluo xiaoshuo 网络小说),‘xuanhuan’ 玄幻, ‘Tang Jia San Shao’ 唐家三少,‘Internet literature’ (wangluo wenxue 网络文 学),‘qihuan’ 奇幻, ‘love’ (aiqing 爱情), ‘fiction’ (xiaoshuo 小说), ‘genre literature’ (leixing wenxue 类型文学).
In all three cases, we can observe the tendency to assign xuanhuan label to novels published as qihuan. However, it does not concern only qihuan fiction, as we can observe on labelling examples from chapter 2.1., where due to the almost 100% overlap between xuanhuan and qihuan I came to a conclusion that the characteristics of the fantasy genres seem similar enough in the eyes of the readers for them to be used freely. This is further induced by the ‘relabelling’ of some the novels originally published as qihuan, and it suggests the close relationship of the Internet fantasy fiction in general. In this train of thought, I will once again reference the Deatblade’s Youtube video, where aside from three Chinese ‘fantasy’ genres – wuxia, xiuxian/xianxia, and xuanhuan – he mentions another genre, which “is essentially just more western-style fantasy, which is also really popular, but I wouldn’t categorize it as a Chinese genre, because they’re basically just copying the Western genres” (Deathblade 2017). He could be possibly hinting at the qihuan novels, which by this description appear to be somewhat ‘specialized’ or ‘niche’ type of novels, and that do not belong among the ‘main’ types of Chinese Internet fantasy. Another way to interpret the xuanhuan/qihuan terminology is that qihuan was the prevalent term used for ‘fantasy’ during the early era of Internet literature, which over the time got replaced by xuanhuan, partially due the fact that fantasy fiction became one the central genres of Internet literature, and the fan’s point of view towards fantasy shifted from ‘new genre, which came to China from the West’ to the genre, which now is a stable part of the Internet literature and started to treat it as inherently ‘Chinese’. However, xuanhuan makes a very broad genre category, therefore it can encompass pretty much any novel that can be described as ‘fantasy’. This hints at another reason, why most of the so-called ‘qihuan’ novels are commonly categorized as xuanhuan or simply assigned both labels, and further clarifies the reason why the relabelling of the novels originally published as qihuan to xuanhuan was possible. With the exception of the few early produced novels, which basically just strictly followed the Western fantasy model (like the
77 Accessed on 30th of April 2020. Link:
‘orthodox qihuan’ category described by Shao), all of the qihuan stories also fit into the xuanhuan category. And how does the xiuxian genre fit into the picture? I have already discussed a scheme, where qihuan exists as the ‘ancestor’ of the two modern fantasy genres. Xuanhuan and xiuxian then can be seen as a ‘scale’ on which the fantasy novels can exist – on one side of the scale are the xiuxian stories drawing strongly from Daoism, Chinese mythology, and focusing on the cultivation of qi; on the other side is xuanhuan that fuses these ‘eastern’ (Chinese) elements with western ones. In any case, the ‘content’ of these genres largely overlaps, which is subsequently mirrored in the use of the genre labels in practice – the readers label the novel according to what they deem suitable based on the themes and type of story it contains, which often applies to the multiple genres. The result then is the phenomenon, where most of the stories get labelled as xuanhuan (as it is the largest category), along with labels that also fit the themes contained in each specific novel.
CONCLUSION
This thesis had two main goals – the first was to provide a basic introduction to the Chinese Internet literature discourse to the Western reader. This was done in the Part 1, where I discussed the basic concept of the Internet literature, specific reader-centric environment it creates, it’s freemium business model, brief overview of its development and trends, along with the basic characteristics of Internet literature and the related terms – YY fiction, which refers to the type of works that “satisfy the mind”; shuang, which refers to the feeling of thrill and satisfaction one gets from reading the novel; and the distinction of xiaobai vs. wenqing literature − xiaobaiwen refers to type of works where the most important quality is the entertaining function, and wenqing works try to establish a trend of high quality works, creating intentional opposition to the xiaobaiwen. The second goal was to analyse the topic of genre in Internet fiction with particular regards to fantasy literature. In the Part 2 of the thesis, I conducted my research on basis of primary sources analysis – specifically my reading of the Internet fantasy novels, consulting online fan forums and other areas of fan-related activities within the cyberspace (YouTube, Quora, Douban, blog entries, etc.) related to the topic. The information I obtained from the analysis were then compared and discussed with regards to the available secondary sources, which were the research papers, essays, articles, and books published by other scholars.
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The genre of Internet literature in China is a result of traditional genres of Chinese popular fiction and new genres that arrived in China with translations of Western literary works that got mixed and fused together in various ways. The cultural sources of Internet genres can be found in:
- Traditional Chinese literature, namely by following the chain myths/historiography – anecdotes and fiction in classical Chinese – vernacular fiction – modern popular fiction (wuxia) – contemporary Internet (fantasy) genres. - Cultural areas with origins outside of China, such as American Hollywood movies, online games, Euro American sci-fi and fantasy, and Japanese manga and anime.
The contemporary genres of Internet literature all mix, combine, and fuse within them above mentioned sources, resulting in what Chao calls the “literary melangé”. However, despite the influence of the foreign cultural works, the recurrence of several narrative conventions originating in the traditional Chinese literature (e.g. the tale of origin) can still be discovered in the contemporary works of Internet fiction. With regards to the genre classification of the Internet literature, I have come to a conclusion that it has been influenced by its literary medium (the Internet/cyberspace), and thus in practice the ‘genre’ becomes one of the ‘labels’ used by its readers in order to more effectively describe specific novels, and for convenient ways to access preferred content with the use of tag-based system employed on the literary websites. Therefore, the use of the ‘genre’ in the sense as one uses it to classify the paper-based novel becomes obsolete when talking about Internet novel – the genre category in practice then becomes an ‘aggregation of tags’, with certain tags (or genre labels) belonging to multiple ‘sets’ (genres). One of the important findings was also the fact that certain genres, namely qihuan and xuanhuan, showcase almost 100% overlap in the usage of the labels when tagging individual novels by the users (readers). This suggests a close relation between individual fantasy genres of Internet literature, which was further analysed and discussed in the chapter 2.3., and the fact that Internet literature generally shares a lot of common features and characteristics despite its very wide array of genres. The shared features of Internet genre fiction are identifiable across the whole genre spectrum. However, it needs to be stated that my analysis was conducted on xiaobaiwen and danmei works with labels related to fantasy genres (xuanhuan, qihuan, xiuxian/xianxia) only, therefore my conclusions towards this topic are mostly relevant towards said type of genre fiction. The first such shared characteristic is the setting of the fictional world jiakong, which signifies any world which is alternative to the reality (a.k.a. the ‘fantastical’ world). Another feature commonly found across the whole genre spectrum are the topoi of transmigration and rebirth. Based on my novel analysis,
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I was able to observe the basic framework of the transmigration/rebirth topos, which presents the stories where the protagonist gets radically transposed into new default coordinates with his past giving him/her the ultimate advantage. Transmigration and rebirth share many characteristics, such as protagonist’s radical transposition, alternative consciousness, and omniscient viewpoint. They exist as two aggregates that largely overlap, do not exclude each other, to the extent of existence of crosses between these two types. The use of the transmigration/rebirth label in practice is usually tied with certain type of story – transmigration often signifies the change of hero’s fictional world, whereas rebirth commonly presents a story of revenge and reliving one’s past. The last chapter of my thesis discussed the issue of Internet fantasy genres in China, namely qihuan, xuanhuan, and xiuxian. Even though the genres themselves were semantically divided by various researchers, during my research I was faced with a dilemma of discrepancy between real- life and academically proposed usage. This was especially evident in the case of qihuan/xuanhuan labels, as hinted by the previously mentioned analysis of usage of genre labels in practice. Therefore, I have summarized approaches and descriptions conducted by the researchers in the past, but then made my own analysis based on Internet novels with additional consulting of other primary sources, such as fan forums and relevant fan-made YouTube videos. Based on the analysis of three fantasy novels – Panlong, Douluo Dalu, and Xianni – I was able to identify the basic narrative pattern of fantasy genres: underdog – prodigy – apotheosis, or alternatively mortal – supreme saint – new cosmic order. Similarly, it became evident that the novels share many conventions, such as the employment of golden finger by the protagonist, shuangdian emphasis in the plot, the banzhu chihu trope, the abuse of the main character in order to induce shuang during the story, the narrative of rebellion and revenge, and the ‘law of the jungle’ prevailing above the sense of morality. Another shared characteristic is the ‘truth of the world’ topos, which becomes the unit of power in the later stages of training/cultivation by the characters. I was able to identify above mentioned features in all of the analysed novels, despite the fact they were all labelled as various genres on their publishing platform. Regarding the usage of the terms in practice, it seems that my proposed theory of Internet genre being an aggregation of individual labels does reflect the reality, as the majority of individual labels, which make up the ‘genre category’ for each fantasy genre seem to overlap (as was further backed by my novel analysis). Therefore, in reality one novel fits the description of several individual ‘genres’. Another way to interpret the genre terminology is that qihuan was the prevalent term used for ‘fantasy’ during the early era of Internet literature. However, over the time it was replaced by xuanhuan, as the fan’s point of view towards fantasy shifted from ‘new, foreign genre’ towards ‘genre that is a central part of Internet literature’, and is now inherently ‘Chinese’. 91
Xuanhuan can encompass pretty much any novel that can be described as ‘fantasy’, and explains the reason why most of the stories get labelled as xuanhuan (as it is the largest category), along with labels that also fit the themes contained in each specific novel. Simply put, within the area of general reader usage, after the term qihuan became obsolete, it got replaced by xuanhuan. Xuanhuan and xiuxian can then be viewed as a scale on which the contemporary Internet fantasy novels exist, and the labels are assigned by the readers according to what seems suitable based on the themes and type of the story, which usually fits several categories.
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REFERENCES
Primary sources
Internet novels:
Shenmu:
Chen Dong 辰东, Shenmu 神墓 (2007) [online]. [cit. 2020-09-04]. Retrieved from https://book.qidian.com/info/63856
Xianni:
Er Gen 耳根, Xianni 仙逆 (2012) [online]. [cit. 2020-09-04]. Retrieved from https://book.qidian.com/info/1264634
Er Gen. (n.d.) Renegade Immortal [online]. (Rex., Trans.). Retrieved from https://www.wuxiaworld.com/novel/renegade-immortal
Modao Zushi:
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 墨香铜臭, Modao Zushi 魔道祖师 (2015) [online]. [cit. 2020-09-04]. Retrieved from http://www.jjwxc.net/oneauthor.php?authorid=1322620
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. (n.d.) Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation [online]. (K, Trans.) Retrieved from https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/novels/grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation/
Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong:
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 墨香铜臭, Renzha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong 人渣反派自救系统 (2014) [online]. [cit. 2020-09-04]. Retrieved from http://www.jjwxc.net/oneauthor.php?authorid=1322620
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. (n.d.) The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System [online]. (Fae, Trans.) Retrieved from http://bcnovels.com/the-scum-villains-self-saving-system/#comment-17620
Tianguan Cifu:
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Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 墨香铜臭, Tianguan Cifu 天官赐福 (2017) [online]. [cit. 2020-09-04]. Retrieved from http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3200611
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. (n.d.) Heaven’s Official Blessing [online]. (Sakhyu, Trans.) Retrieved from https://www.sakhyulations.com/2017/12/05/heaven-officials-blessing-chapter-1/
Shapolang:
priest, Shapolang 杀破狼 (2015) [online]. [cit. 2020-20-04]. Link:
priest. (n.d.) Sha Po Lang [online]. (Northwestflower, Trans.) Retrieved from https://www.wattpad.com/story/164527100-%E6%9D%80%E7%A0%B4%E7%8B%BC-sha-po- lang-by-priest
Douluo Dalu:
Tang Jia San Shao 唐家三少. Douluo Dalu 斗罗大陆 (2008) [online]. [cit. 2020-06-04]. Retrieved from https://book.qidian.com/info/1115277
Tang Jia San Shao (n.d.) Douluo Dalu [online]. (Bagelson, Trans.) Retrieved from https://bluesilvertranslations.wordpress.com/
Panlong:
Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi 我吃西红柿. Panlong 盘龙 (2008) [online]. [cit. 2020-06-04]. Retrieved from https://book.qidian.com/info/1017141
Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi (n.d.) Coiling Dragon [online]. (RWX, Trans.) Retrieved from https://www.wuxiaworld.com/novel/coiling-dragon-preview
Websites:
豆瓣 (Douban). (n.d.). Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.douban.com/
晋江文学城 (Jinjiang Literature City). (n.d.). Retrieved June 3, 2020, from http://www.jjwxc.net/
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Novel Updates - Directory of Asian Translated Novels. (n.d.). Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.novelupdates.com/
起 点 中 文 网 _ 阅 文 集 团 旗 下 网 站 (Qidian). (n.d.). Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.qidian.com/
Quora. (n.d.). Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.quora.com/
Readlightnovel.com. (2020, June 3). readlightnovel.com. Retrieved from https://www.readlightnovel.org/
Wuxiaworld. (n.d.). Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.wuxiaworld.com/
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