Discussion Death of Chinese Webnovel Literature

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama...ese_webnovels_how_tencent_the_chinese_reddit/

Clickbait title, but it might age well.

TLDR: Tencent revise their author contract into an actual 'slave' contract, effectively killing most of the not-super-star authors. It even got Lord of the Mysteries to be axed, likely to protest against this change.

If this trend keeps going, then other platforms might follow the footsteps of Tencent, and the title might really not be clickbait anymore

 

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-...-Holdings-and-Encourages-Investors-to-Co.html

Apparently, Class Action Lawsuits is undergoing, but expect nothing in the short term, as these things usually took at least a year, let alone against mega cooperation like Tencent. At worst, it's postponed until we all died.

 

I'll just quote myself form another thread~

 

Damn....no wonder i felt the ending is kind of hurried and he said that he might rest first before second book come out

 

Tencent be like "We will own your novel and your soul. However, any and all troubles caused by your novel will be taken full responsibility by you alone. We might deign to pay you only if you fulfill all the following bazillion conditions stipulated in the contract which BTW will be interpreted by us as we see fit".

Don't miss the opportunity of becoming the author you always dreamed of, in China's largest and most popular webnovel platform!

Edit: Tho the implication is different, Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author" seems very fitting here.

 

One of them does not belong to writing at all.

Suspicious activity from a company wanting someone's social media account's rights. I don't see any intellectual property concerns, so why the need to establish ownership over someone's accounts of any social media platform? I smell legit... underhanded workings.

 

Non-silent reminder that Tencent owns Qidian aka Webnovel.

 

I just wonder because i rarely follow the news on chinese corporation, but is there no competition on tencent corp? Or every company follows the contract like that?

 

1 minute of silence for our fallen brothers.

F

 

Tencent pretty much dominated the market of any kinds, really. It's Disney but on steroid and more evil.

 

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK YOU TENCUNT!!!! GO FUCK YOURSELF AND GO SUCK MORE HONEY FLAVORED BEAR DICK FUCKING SHITSTAINS!!!!!

 

Fuck you! I got dizzy reading your shit!

 

Who you talkin bout

 

Sorry. I just have this urge to punch a goddamn wall

 

RoyalRoad should expand its tentacles to more people so originals will posted on royalroad

 

... welp, this is beyond horrible, they copied all the worst aspects of their western counterparts and amplified it to the maximum. I mean, I know Disney is just as prickish, but to go full-on slave contract is just "go fuck yourself, whatever good is mine and whatever bad is yours."

Frankly at this point I just think that Tencent has been owned by the govt, like basically anything and everything in the country.
Real bleeding fun when you chokehold the creativity out cold.
And they also ban most bandwidths and even prevent outside interference, so no one, say someone outside of the country, can open up a website for writers too.
Goddammit, now where can I find over the top unreal kungfu hustle mixed with chinese mythological mumbles?

 

Something relevant to the OP: https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltrans...upper_tier_qidian_author_ji_on_new_contracts/
TL;DR: "
For those who are not aware, there has been a HUGE uproar in the Chinese webnovel world lately. Not only has the entire management team of the Qidian conglomerate 'Yuewen' been replaced, there is now also a new contract that is very, very unfavorable to authors - even more so than the existing ones! Many authors have stated that they are going to quit writing entirely.

Below is a lengthy blog post by Qidian author Ji Cha 姬叉 on the situation. Ji Cha's current novel 问道红尘 (Seeking the Dao in the Red Dust) [red dust figuratively means 'the mortal world'] on Qidian is ranked 38, so he is one of their top authors, albeit not one of the tippity-top platinum authors.

The post is quite detailed, and I personally learned a lot. The tldr is - it sucks, is humiliating, authors become even less protected, but there's probably nothing that can be done about it. Everything below is from Ji Cha."

 

That sucks, just Tencent's usual cash grabbing way of doing things Grrr

Can't they move into another platform or something? Like jjwxc that's basicaly chinese ver of syosetsu? What are other platforms?
Or just the contract not allow them to do so?

 

Why do i feel like Tencent manage to kill a fledgling industry before it even reached it's potential?

Edit: Wait, from my vague understanding of the new 'contract', if the Authors manage to get there Novel an adapted to Film, Tv Series, Animation and etc. Royalties and payment will not even go to them but directly to the Company? Wew, i'll botched my Novel if i was an author too lol.