Discussion Why does most CN cultivation novel and JP isekai novel need to put harem as one of the novel content

I'm just wondering, why does author have the need for harem content? It's not that I hate harem, but it's kinda weird when both JP and CN culture are mainly monogamous relationship.

 

If you're high enough in a power position, noone dares tell you you can't have several women without being suicidal

 

Harem in CN: Has been discussed to death. Mainly for plot progression, I believe.

Harem in JPN: Not sure why since half of them MCs do nothing with their women. The other half aren't even aware they have one.
Maybe it's cuz they r repressed people. So their fantasy preference swings wildly in the other direction???

 

but having one woman in Cultivation world if according to the generic CN trope will cause MC trouble..then he take another woman and then get into trouble again.. the MC never learn do they?

 

hidden desires. Looks like the targeted audience "surprisingly" likes the concept of having a harem.

 

For JP then I guess it's wish-fulfilling.
But for CN......they are more like "trophies" or "tools" or "objects" or whatever.....can't call that "Harem"

 

but IET, Er Gen doesn't need to pull this kind of generic trope to write a good story.

 

Because of popular demand

 

we gonna need a new tags. 'collectable female companion', 'forgotten female companion', 'gotta catch em all female companion'

 

Cause teens like that stuff.... simple....

 

U answered it urself. Those who can write an engaging story don't need to pull this shit. Btw, even popular novelists like TJSS and Er Gen have harems in some of their novels.

 

Because readers like it.

 

Er Gen write novel with harem in it?? and here i thought he's one of the loyal to one girl forever guy.

 

to feed ego.

 

It's a trope. There is a definition for this in the Internet.
In my opinion; C novel harems at most, the harem members are collectibles forged through massacres or youth. JP novel harems are divided between modern and fantasy harems. Modern harems are teenage or adult drama oppose to fantasy harems that follow either the "hero always gets (or fucks) the girl" or "non-hero (anti-hero or villain) saves (or rapes) the girl" archetypes.

 

Sex sells. Why do you think most mc's in those novels get the prettiest women around? It's pretty stupid that this works with novels, even though we can't see the characters.

IET writes the same novel over, and over, over again. First love doesn't workout, second does, the righteous, hypocrite mc, this world is bigger than you can imagine... but it also smaller than you know, because we're the smallest-biggest world in this huge universe, ever. Because there were universes before it.

 

That's just brutal

 

Harems were present during the medieval times and even the periods before it.
It may be because they viewed harems as a trophy collection?
So it's one of the reasons that CN and JP novels contain harems.
Though this line of thought begs the question of why there is a need for harems in novels with novels day setting.

 

People love watching other people collect trophies apparently.

 

From a purely theoretical point of view, if you think about people who live for thousands if not millions of years it's stranger for them not to have some form of harem (both for male and female characters). I mean, most of the times we can't even pull off 50 years with the same person, let alone a thousand. Plus, the whole point of cultivation is becoming immortal and doing whatever you want, so being monogamous doesn't seem like a value you would keep in the long run.
That said, i never found a chinese novel (or any novel, tbh) doing an actually good harem. I guess it would be possible if the harem was the main focus of the story, but i don't see myself reading that kind of novel, so who knows.