News Thanks to foreign translators, China’s thriving online lit scene is heading overseas

In case you haven't seen it, cause Ren just posted this a few minutes ago, translated works have been recognised! In Global Times! China. Shiroyuki and Ren make an appearance!

Here's the link: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/973691.shtml

Mod edit (remy): Ren from WuxiaWorld even translated some user comments from the Chinese edition of the article.

 

I remember sharing this (i didn't make a thread tho)

 

Lol, did you? Whoops~

 

Not many ppl saw it anyway

 

Not sure if this has been posted here already.

Source: Chinese newspaper The Global Times
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/973691.shtml

Spoiler

The first Chinese Web novel that Indonesian university student Yohanna ever read was Zhan Long (Cutting Dragon, published in hard copy in 2013), which was one of the first of its kind translated into English. The novel, which is based on a video game, tracks the adventures of young characters as they traverse different lands, complete with elements of action, fantasy, romance and the supernatural.

That's all it took - Yohanna was immediately hooked.

"When I was reading, I felt so happy, desperate to read more," she said. Yohanna, an information systems major, is in her senior year of university in Singapore, where she learned to speak both English and Chinese.

For Yohanna, part of the appeal of online novels is that there are no limits placed on the imagination. "I prefer reading books in the fantasy or virtual reality game genres," she said, adding that "English-language readers seem to prefer fantasy in the Chinese context."

In the past decade, online literature has seen explosive development in China, leading to the rapid growth of several Web novel sites and dozens of writers whose online works have earned them fame and millions of yuan a year. More recently, overseas readers have also begun joining this "big book club," which has led to a new phenomenon - flourishing forums dedicated to translations of Chinese Web novels.



Many foreign readers say they have become hooked on Chinese Web novels thanks to their strong, imaginative plots and vast range of genres. Photo: IC


Exploring a range of genres

Emphasizing the fun plots, Yohanna pointed out that there are a range of Chinese Web novel genres that cater to every taste. "There are a lot, fantasy, wuxia (martial arts), xianxia (martial arts blended with Taoist magic), xuanhuan (fantasy featuring adventures and wars) and so on."

Yohanna is especially into "light novels," a genre of serialized short fiction for young adults that emerged in Japan as an extension of pulp magazines. According to Yohanna, they are particularly well-suited to foreign readers like herself. "[Novels of other types] often use complicated language, but light novels are quite simple, as they are written by amateurs."

Yohanna started out reading Japanese light novels translated into English, which in turn led her to discover Chinese light novels. To her surprise, there were scores of them, many of which had already been translated into English.

Already an avid fan, Yohanna began visiting different translation sites, anxiously awaiting updates. Later, she decided to take the matter into her own hands and start her own website, shiroyukitranslations.com, where she uploads light novels that she has translated, chapter by chapter. Each chapter, she said, often receives tens of thousands of hits.

Popularity isn't a given though; Yohanna says, there are several standards your work must meet. "First of all, you have to release it frequently, at least four to five times a week. Secondly, the work should have fresh ideas; it should be something different."

The most popular novel she's translated to date was Zhaohuan Wansui (Long Live Summons). "This is different from the rest of the novels out there, because you can only read so many virtual reality novels about some guy training to become stronger," she says. "Summoning is a new category."

The unique charms of 'pop' fiction

Though snobs may dismiss Web novels as mere pulp fiction, Yohanna believes they have their own unique charms that are no less than that of the classics.

One reason is that they are free and easy to access.

She also believes the Chinese elements in many of these novels have proved attractive to many overseas readers, including the frequent use of online memes and jokes or passing remarks related to Chinese culture. For example, the main character in one novel she is working on likes to impress the ladies by saying that he wrote all the classic Chinese poems himself - and since he's a time traveler, he is able to get away with it.

Felicia Yan, a high school student from Seattle, is one of a growing number of American readers of Chinese Web novels.

So far, Yan, who is Chinese-American, has read the original versions of Lang Ya Bang (Nirvana in Fire), The Legend of Zhenhuan, The Disguiser and several other novels. All of these have been made into popular Chinese TV series that have even made it overseas, which is one way foreign readers learn about these novels.

However, she considers these books more than simple pop culture fodder, citing Lang Ya Bang as an example.

"It is not just about personal power or benefits, but friendship, loyalty, as well as the greater good of the people," she said. "I really enjoyed reading the novel, as it brought forth many emotions that I think are common for all of us today."

As an example, she cites Prince Jing, who is loyal toward another character, Mei Changsu, despite his bias against him. "It continues to inspire me to become someone who holds friendship, teamwork, loyalty, and all the other virtues we see in Lang Ya Bang highly."

The community of a subculture

Chinese-Canadian student Stanley Zhang, 20, first started reading Chinese Web novels in 2010, starting with the classic The Adventures of Three Tomb Raiders (Gui Chui Deng).

Zhang, who studies psychology and Japanese in Tokyo, has a special area of interest: "BL" (or "Boys' Love") literature, which is a genre that originated in Japan and is dedicated to romantic or sexual relationships between male characters.

Though it's usually written by and for women, Zhang, who is bisexual, is a big fan, and since 2013, estimates he has translated 638,038 Chinese characters of BL fiction into 429,585 English words.

He posts primarily on a forum called "Chinese BL Translations," for which he is an administrator.

According to Zhang, a majority of the readers of his website are from the US, and many come from Malaysia and Indonesia as well.

"I was very surprised and proud when I realized that many people [from overseas] love to read these novels."

Sometimes, readers make requests, asking Zhang to translate certain novels that they hear are good, or from a well-known writer of the community, or to finish translating a project that was dropped halfway through.

According to Zhang, people start reading Chinese Web novels for different reasons. Some are very interested in Chinese culture, while others get interested because they are familiar with certain subcultures, such as the BL fiction community.

Cultural ambassadors

On top of his personal interest in the genre, Zhang has another ambition behind his translation work - to show that Chinese culture has advanced beyond the outdated picture that most of the world has of a traditional, conservative people.

"I want to let people know that Asian youth have their own interpretations of diversity. I want people to learn more about our Chinese culture."

Another major forum, wuxiaworld.com, shares a similar motivation.

"[I want to] serve as a bridge to bring aspects of Chinese culture, legends and stories to the Western world," said the Chinese-American owner of the website, who goes by the penname "Ren Woxing," after a character from a wuxia classic The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.

Ren, 30, is a former diplomat and certified translator who resigned from his job working for the US government about six months ago to focus on the website.

Founded in December 2014, wuxiaworld.com is the largest Chinese Web novel translation forum in the world, boasting nearly 3 million page views each day. Its more-than-200,000 users hail from over 150 countries across the world, and it boasts 14 translation teams, each working on a project of their own. The teams are a mixture of Chinese, Singaporeans, Chinese-Americans and foreigners who have been studying Chinese for years.

Ren began the work over a decade ago by translating traditionally published wuxia novels. Foreign readership, however, was small. "These novels are very quintessentially Chinese, and comparatively harder for foreign readers to get into," he said.

Fortunately, along with the development of online literature over the past few years, international translators have also become exposed to modern Chinese Web novels, especially those of the xianxia and xuanhuan genres, which, Ren said, have served as a turning point for Chinese Web novels' overseas popularity.

These genres contain many magical elements, a number of which are borrowed from Western fantasy, making them more accessible to Western readers, Ren said.

For example, Coiling Dragon, which spans more than 800 chapters, all translated by Ren, features a continent of saints, immortal beings of unimaginable power, spells, swords and magical beasts.

"I'm not sure if this is a 'golden age' for Chinese Web novels [overseas] yet, but I would describe this as the start of a huge surge in interest in them," Ren said. He added that the size of Chinese Web novel readership is still much smaller than that of Japanese novels and non-Asian novel readership too, so there's still a long way to go.

 

Umu, we are going to have a yen press for chinese lit. yuan press?

 

T-This is bad news!!! We're gonna get DMCA'd!! kekkus

 

Sigh, more exposure isn't always good. See what trouble we have with Japanese novels. As soon as publishers smell money, we'll be struggling to read anything good.

 

Maybe they will charge for each chapter, if we want to read them like a certain site...
P.s why can you let MT me peacefully

 

I can see the copyright cadets on the horizon. The scent of money is drawing them closer...

 

You three...... so negative personalities.....

 

But they have a point any famous Japanese get dmca so y can't Chinese

 

Realistic.

 

Most of the translators have already contacted the original authors and received consent from them to translate their works. Kindhearted Bee and Mars Gravity have both released statements thanking their oversea fans reading the english translations of their novels. So a lot of novels probably won't get DMCA'd, the problem only occurs if qidian and 17k start getting involved.

 

I have a feeling this will bring some bad people who are driven by money. This exposure may be good in some ways but mostly we might have to prepare.

 

But so true...

 

ren made it a point to say how its going to stay free sooo
no it wont go that way

 

I think it's fairly unlikely for Qidian/17k/Zongheng to start sending out DMCA.

Japanese Light Novels have an established global market, they intend to market the Light Novels in English, hence the DMCA notices of any fan translation. Chinese web novels have a very niche market at the moment, it's nowhere near the level of their Japanese counterpart.

Secondly, China can't even handle the pirate sites of their own novels.

Ranwen, Piaotian, etc etc.

 

A number of Chinese authors already have deals or permissions for translations like True Martial World, MGA, etc.

 

Nope. You can't even compare Japanese and Chinese novels right now. Japanese much more popular and famous.

Japanese light novels that get DMCA'd not only have novels, they have animes, figurines, games etc. While Chinese....are stuck with the web novels. And a few Chinese exclusive games. The advertising difference is very large.

Plus, Japanese light novel industry is more professional, I think? Unlike Chinese, where the author does everything by themselves(unless they get someone to do editing, advertising, illustrations etc) JP LN have several publishing houses in Japan, making it easy for Yen Press to reach out to the authors whose novels they wish to read.
So if a Chinese style Yen Press appears, they'd have to reach out to individual writers one by one.

Also, the Chinese novels industry are more of an informal sector when compared to the Japan one. They are called web novels cos....they are on the web.

Making dark 'what if' statements when there's nothing to really back it up apart from the fact, it happened there(in this case, licencing of JP novels is the 'happened there' situation) is not being realistic. It's called being pessimistic. Otherwise, all the people who feel WW3 is coming soon and making their private bunkers to prepare would be called realistic as well.