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

It's probably easier to list authors instead of books:

Jin Yong is the best of the Chinese writers, and he's probably the best writer on NU altogether. If you're at all interested in Chinese novels, this should be your first stop. Also, note that every other author in my list borrows heavily from him; often to the point of name dropping characters or martial arts from his books. One of the problems is that his books have very long chapters so the chapter count tends to be low. It gives the impression that they're short when many of them are in 1 - 1.2 million word range.

Tong Hua is the best of the Romance writers. Her books are full of vivid characters making meaningful decisions amidst a backdrop of intricate conflicts. There's a realistic streak to her writing so true love sometimes isn't enough and there can be a lot of pain in her stories. She's not necessarily a must read, but if you're interested in Romance novels, you should definitely check her out. Also, Tong Hua has been popular enough and successful enough that she's now working in the Chinese TV industry.

Yue Guan isn't actively translated on NU but he's my favorite current writer so I'm going to include him anyways. He writes incredibly detailed historical novels with amazing world building and populated with tons of great characters. Unlike many male writers, Yue Guan loves writing female characters so his books have lots of interesting ones integrated into the plot. His books are pretty hard to translate in general because he goes into so much detail so you might have to wait a while for any translations.

Non-Player Character is a lot younger than these others, but I really like his writing. In particular, he manages to squeeze a ton of content into relatively short passages and he's able to create great dialogue.

And that's just the really good stuff. There are other authors out there who aren't at these heights but still can write good stories. I don't read xianxia so I can't recommend anything in that genre. However, by a similar token, I also barely ever read books that draw common complaints like the young master syndrome.

 

Apartement for rent are good

The rest is shit

 

I'm a bit naive on the subject, but what's wrong with CN novels and why are they so notorious on these forums compared to KR and JP novels?

 

CN novels have their own brand of isekai (seems more soul isekai oriented) for the fantasy.
The ones more grounded in 'realty' can get rather nationalistic at times and really pains foreigners (americans, japanese, and koreans) as really arrogant, or as hicks and people whose goal is to put down china, and then the MC embarrasses and surpasses them and makes them regret even trying to challenge the great chinese.

 

Not every CN novel is trash some are really great, you just have to give some a try and see if you like them or not. The golden ones are really few. Some novels sound like theyre written by a child jdjdjddjwk

 

almost everything on qidian is trash because of how authors have to drag things to fill up chapters and get money

i believe that qidian themselves are constantly telling authors that you have to write long stories full of fillers and an unnecessary large wordcount to get money

on the other hand, the cn webnovels that actually are good are those that are of average length. about 600-800 chapters.

there are also several 200 chapter novels but these are the exception on qd

browsing qidian, it seems like xianxia usually is offered a contract around 150+ chapters
while isekai and entertainment wn are offered within 2-3 months.

but theres also the novels that are offered almost immediately once they become really popular and of course, theres also the urban legend that qi is full of bots who vote for novels