Question How open-minded should I be If I start reading CN novels?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by ATrueStory, Oct 13, 2019.

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How open-minded should I be If I start reading CN novels?

  1. Try it! You'll like something.

  2. No. Just No.

  3. It is your duty to read CN novels.

  4. Try and bleach your brain afterward.

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  1. Sunspawn

    Sunspawn Well-Known Member

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    If you're patient, you might be able to separate some gold nuggets in that sea of chaff. Personally, I am not nearly patient enough, so I just skip CN novels now.
     
  2. LNreader

    LNreader Courting Death

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    You need to be open enough to see Mount Tai.
     
  3. Ancient_Devil

    Ancient_Devil Well-Known Member

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    If you don't like arrogant young masters try:
    A record of a mortal's journey to immortality, Tempered Immortal, Lord of the mysteries, Warlock of the magus world, Renegade Immortal and Daoist Master of Qing Xuan.
     
  4. Not Red Yet

    Not Red Yet Well-Known Member

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    It's rude to reply to a post this old.
     
  5. fanwithlight

    fanwithlight Well-Known Member

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    In my opinion, CN novels are more variable than KR and JP ones. You can almost find everything here.
    The hard part is to look for what suit best for your taste. You should describe as detailed as possible what you're looking for (Don't say things like "looking for a good novel"). Rely about 30% on rating and 40% on reviews (I have seen novels which someone describe as trash while another says it's a masterpiece)
    I think I'm lucky in this regards, because I found novels that I can read for a dozen of times without feeling bored.
     
  6. Jojofann

    Jojofann Well-Known Member

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    What genre are you looking forward to in CN? Maybe I can help:)
     
  7. Mahou-nii-sama

    Mahou-nii-sama Ultimate Cannon Fodder

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    you don't even need a brain to read it.
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2019
  8. lykizan

    lykizan Well-Known Member

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    you should probably look for recommendations first. like some have said there is a lot of repetition, but among these repetitions there are always one or five novels that are incredibly well written. if you look at my profile or whatever you'll probably see i mainly read chinese bl, a few bl novels are amazingly well written and have plots that are genuinely fantastic. of course, bl is a very specific cup of tea. (if you do not mind this cup of tea you can try works like the earth is online and card room, they have game like settings and imo have very good plots and dont emphasize as much on the romance.)

    expect a lot of face slapping (not literal, usually. sometimes literal. depends on what you're reading basically revenge. everywhere. if this girl rejects him what does mc do? become omnipotent and make her regret her life decisions. betrayed by best friend? rise to the top and again make them regret.

    go in with a very open mind and don't judge the summaries too hard. you may end up missing gems like how i nearly missed card room
     
  9. TraderLife

    TraderLife Active Member

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    It's just another novel written by another human being, there's no need to get hyped over it?. Of course the writter will be different, what's written will be different, there'll be different style, culture, worldview, taste, preference, etc.

    Just read it if you're interested, seek the recommendation, find the genre you're familiar with and start from there.
    Note:novel tag is your best friend use it.
     
  10. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    While this is true for the most part, there are things that you can get from Chinese novels that I have never seen done elsewhere. Leaving aside genres that don't really exist in other languages, Chinese historical novels are just a lot better than their English language counterparts.
     
  11. Vanvil

    Vanvil Active Member

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    I absolutely hate history and most things cultural but I have no idea why I'm reading Chinese historical novels.
    They're good writers I suppose?
     
  12. Oddwaffle

    Oddwaffle Well-Known Member

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    Generally, CN are to some extent:

    #1 Racist. This heavily reflected as they think themselves as some superior culture/race compare to everyone else.

    #2 Tendency to be heavy with nationalism. Probably not the author intention but it's sort of like a ritual when you got a good story involving politics, nation growth and such you would touch someone's toes and you will have to sing the nationalism song to prove yourself not a radical or something.

    #3 Tendency to believe socialism as good even though they don't really do actual socialism and it's just totalitarianism. Sometimes you run into novels saying socialism being the only way for a country to grow and the MC proceed to dictate everything on his own.
     
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  13. joey183

    joey183 The Mysterious Entity

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    It was new and exciting at first but now after reading many of them, I find CN a bit too long winded because it'll have over 1000 chapters in raw which means the TL will take years to complete. Also most CNs started out great in the beginning, but from mid-way onward, about 150++ chapters later, the story becomes very repetitive so it easy to lose interest when the TL went on hiatus.

    CN with the same genre also tend to be almost a duplicate of each other when you read more of them. Eg, cultivation type CN (shounen) will have arrogant, genius of the century young master who will always be provoked to attack the MC and end up losing badly. Harem of jade-like beauties would always be drawn to MC, etc etc.

    Modern setting CN (shounen), have a lot of gangster-ism and fighting in school arc and when it reach to politics and working environment arc, racism and nationalism are highlighted at almost any given point. Beauties from each job/department can tolerate MC having other girls beside them, etc etc.

    For romance modern setting type CN (shoujo), the ML is often depicted as cold-hearted, arrogant, and super rich CEO who use forceful 'bed-warming' act to FL as a show of love most of the time regardless whether it's consented or not.

    The police is also pretty much useless in most modern type CNs because in the story, the ML coming from a superior family background (aka RICH) will easily kidnap the FL from the regular person background at any time and anywhere without any fear of prosecution.

    This applies to villain too, for they can easily commit crimes without getting caught because they have been bribing the police to not catch them until one day the ML comes in to save the day by forcing the police to do their job.
     
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  14. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    I find that almost the opposite is true. I primarily read Chinese novels, and I do so because I can find things within them that I can't get elsewhere. Sure, it's pretty obvious that Chinese web novels are probably going to be better than those of other countries, but I've found things among them that actual published books are hard pressed to match. Mind you I don't read the same kind of Chinese novels as most people on NU do, but it's hardly my fault that people like to pick bad books when they can read good ones instead!
     
  15. joey183

    joey183 The Mysterious Entity

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    Well, the raw source definitely have much better CNs with superb quality story, but unfortunately, it's not available to NU community since we can't read the raws so we end up reading mostly what's been translated in NU which is why we have mostly similar opinion on CNs
     
  16. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Sure not being able to access untranslated Chinese novels is a drawback, but even a lot of good translated books are ignored on NU. I've seen a ton of people complain about not being able to find good wuxia novels just to find out that they've never read Jinyong! It's one thing if you've read these books and don't like them, but not reading them in the first place? That's your own damned fault!
     
  17. Szara

    Szara Your average American Psycho

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    If you’re looking for a more original story, I would filter out these tags/genre:

    -Transmigration
    -Second Chance
    -World Hopping
    -Reincarnation
    -Harem

    I swear, at least 90% of the stories on here deals with those topics.

    I am amused when the author praise socialism/communism... and then turn around and have their characters be the rich Capitalist/CEO types. Or at least, the love interest is.
     
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  18. joey183

    joey183 The Mysterious Entity

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    Not sure why you sounded so pissed off, but if you do indeed know any good translated books that are ignored on NU, do share them here in this forum so that we can widen our horizons!!
     
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  19. Creolenerd

    Creolenerd Well-Known Member

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    a lot of Cn novels love this trope of being drugged and assaulted and then someone records it and everybody calls the victim a slut.....I don't get the appeal
     
  20. ZeroBlink

    ZeroBlink Well-Known Member

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    Get your mind ready for rape and ying-yang cultivation(also rape , just with justification)
     
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