Discussion CN writing (Not a rant)

I've been ranting about CN novels' writing style for a while, whether on this forum or to myself when I have nothing better to do. However I finally decided yesturday to do away with some of the ignant in me and do some research on what life is like in China, by that I mean that I watched a couple short Youtube videos. I can now understand a little about why CN novels read the way they do when considering character archtypes and the general warped views on foreign countries(most likely thanks to the great firewall of China). But of course I've only licked the tip of the ice-berg about this topic which is why I'm trying to bring the discussion here for anyone who can provide me with better insights.

 

That is not correct either.
My Chinese friend considers the novels to be crap and won't read them.
You can't use a demographic to judge a country.
The same way people think all Japanese men are otakus because of webnovels.
Thanks to the large population, 10% of 1 billion people reading web novels is 100 million people more than some country's entire population.

 

I would chalk it up more to the web novel rating system and population. A massive population of people who see the success of a few web novel authors probably flock by the thousands to the most popular sites in an attempt to land it big. To land it big, they find they have to write possibly upwards of 3-4 2k chapters a day to get noticed by the site and gain fans amongst the sea of novels. Naturally, that limit only gets pushed further with time. There isn't going to be much thought put into these stories when they have that to compete against.

Realize I answered with the thought of "bad" in mind, but it applies much the same I'd say. I can imagine someone going into it without much thought thinking of writing a masterful story, only to find themselves with no time to think about the plot and resort to making everything over the top to try and make up for it.

 

I agree with you. I've been watching a lot of serpentza and it's explained a lot that I finally understand why most CNs act the way they do, it's just simply common sense there.

I always thought women mentioned in CNs, that always look for a guy just because of their money and looks where materialistic but now i see it in a new perspective. (Though I still disagree with it.) Maybe I'm too used to living in the country of freedom for too long.. Anyways, I recommend you watch him. You'll learn a lot of cool things about China but also a few messed up things

 

Just watch their news rather than youtube videos.

Its all beautified and perfumed when its on youtube. Like how our country is beautified(philippines).

 

It's the translation. And sentence structure of Mandarin. And grammar. And pre-established conventions.

 

Well, after I read about the child kidnappings (who then get sold to childless families in distant villages or beggars who use them to beg, or who knows what else) and girl kidnappings (selling them as brides in distant villages again, because of shortage of women), I suddenly understood why that plot device was so prevalent in some novels I've read. The authors do get inspiration from their surroundings and the news. As for their views on patriotism - I come from an ex communist country so I understand where the mindset comes from. Patriotism is number one in communism - the country before the individual, they teach you to sacrifice yourself when need be, trust the military and the party, don't ask questions, etc. That's also why they don't like religion and get rid of it first - they need to reroute that faith and fanaticism toward the government and the country (well, I'm also an atheist for different reasons lol). But honestly, even if the author himself isn't all that patriotic, there's a censor in China and it doesn't hurt to praise the party, the army, and communist values in your novel, as well as villainize Japan and mock USA, so it gains some good will. I've even seen that in BL novels, lmao. Like in every single zombie apocalypse novel I've read (BL tho), they would ALWAYS say that Japan was overcome by zombies first, or that the virus originated there, and that the whole island is only zombies with no survivors. Without exception.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies

 

Oh yes; writers write based on what they know, what they learn, and what they read. Hence it'd only make sense for Chinese web novels to be heavily based on the lifestyle and education of the writer, and the events he is exposed to. Delve more deeply and the writer will reveal all sorts of things like what kind of films and music he likes and so forth. A surprising number of writers are inspired by TV shows!

This is wrong. The vast majority of writers write because they want to. They get very little money from the web novel sites so money isn't going to be an incentive. Only the top writers get decent amounts of money, and this number is less than 1% of the total.

 

Wow i did not know it was that bad... that's like to the point of brainwashing or something. It's like all over the place in novels these days

 

Lol yeah. I just take it as the authors paying lip service to the censors, so their novels don't get banned too quickly. You'll see this especially in BL and ecchi novels that are more threatened. Like I saw in one BL novel the author referring to Mao Zedong as a hero - it was an alternate world, but a true hero always meets his fate, thus Mao Zedong still brought 'reforms' to China, etc. And I was like, okay girl, guess your novel will get to live another month. The truth doesn't really matter to the government, they just want order and obedience. The truth is whatever they say. I really don't blame the authors for trying to earn their bread this way, so I tend to close an eye when I see some suspicious patriotism in a novel.

 

WTF what novel was that?

 

It doesn't really matter which novel it is because there are probably a ton of them that do this. While Mao isn't universally loved in China, he's still a lot more popular than you think. Every morning there are a ton of tourists who line up to see his mausoleum, and his portrait still adorns Tienanmen Gate.

 

A tonne of BL novels? It seems so absurd that I have to see it with my own eyes.

 

I don't think the level of respect for Mao has anything to do with what kind of book it is. It's pretty common for all sorts of Chinese novels to have political commentary; even ones that you'd think would be totally apolitical. Hell, one of the most aggressively nationalistic books I came across was a silly harem novel. And historical figures get brought up in Chinese novels all the time; even ones that really are apolitical.

 

I really can't remember the title cause I read fast and move on quickly... It should be one of the BL novels currently being translated. I don't think I found it by myself. Can't be sure tho.

 

Too bad... I really wanted to witness it for research purposes.

I'm simply amazed at the degree of cognitive dissonance some authors exhibit. Homosexuals were imprisoned and persecuted during Mao's time for 'degeneracy', so some BL authors don't find it...distasteful? to combine praise for the man with their main subject matter? It's grotesque for sure.

 

I'll be sure to tag you if I find it again. BTW, that's also the reason why I think the authors are just paying lip service. BL novels get their chapters banned pretty easily, so they'll always include some propaganda to at least save their novels from being banned entirely. That's my own guess. But as long as they can say 'See, it's not a novel that teaches bad, we also speak about the evil Japanese, the cocky Americans, the goodness of the Chinese army, and how much the national party thinks for the good of the common folk'. Because I see this parroted everywhere - BL novels, FL novels, ML novels, I started thinking it's just what they're required to write to pass the censor. I know from my country's past experience, one of the best authors at the time wasn't allowed to publish his book, unless he added communist propaganda and changed some events in the book. People who didn't comply or their works seemed offensive to the state, got to experience jail life for a while, if they got out alive at all.

 

Regardless of whether they're straight or gay Chinese writers are likely to identify as Chinese nationals first and foremost. So as long as they think that Mao did great things for China, there's a decent chance that they'd ignore his warts and foibles. It's not too different from how people from other countries ignore the flaws of their national heroes. Now why Mao is still considered a national hero is a different matter, but discussion of that will break the politics rule so I'll leave it there for now.

I don't think that this is what's happening. The way that censorship in China works (at least for web novels) is that authors and books get hit without warning and without any communication. There's no quid pro quo and no amount of pandering will save text that's deemed problematic. Besides, we don't need to make that induction in the first place. A ton of Chinese people; and by extension Chinese writers, are Chinese nationalists or chauvinists so they'll happily write this stuff without any prompting. I sometimes read writer comments, and they can be pretty up front about the thinking behind the things they write. Anti-Japanese sentiment is especially prominent as even writers who tend to be apolitical hold such views.

 

Not so surpising given that most of these novels are utter and complete garbage by objective writing standards. But I found something worse than them: Dungeon Predator. Only MGA at its worst can surpass this dumpsterfire in intensity.