FUZHOU, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — When former U.S. diplomat Lai Jingping based Wuxiaworld.com in 2014, a platform sharing English translations of Chinese martial arts novels, few anticipated {that a} decade later, Chinese on-line literature would emerge as a worldwide cultural phenomenon.
Today, Chinese on-line literature has captured the creativeness of some 200 million lively abroad readers throughout greater than 200 international locations and areas, fascinating audiences and gaining rising recognition from writers, consultants and trade insiders alike.
This recognition was evident as literary professionals gathered Sunday in Quanzhou, a historic port metropolis in east China’s Fujian Province, for the 2025 China Online Literature Forum.
The three-day occasion organized by the China Writers Association (CWA) introduced over 200 delegates to Quanzhou, which is broadly believed to have been the start line of the traditional Maritime Silk Road.
A key focus of this 12 months’s discussion board was worldwide communication, with a sub-forum devoted to international writing methods, abroad platform improvement, and the appliance of AI in supporting the trade’s growth.
GLOBAL RESONANCE
The “new trio” — Chinese on-line literature, video video games and net sequence — has resonated keenly with abroad audiences and grow to be an necessary a part of the worldwide pop-culture panorama, CWA President Zhang Hongsen mentioned on the discussion board.
He referred to as for a deeper recognition of the position on-line literature performs in fostering cross-cultural understanding, and for the creation of extra works that replicate humanity’s shared aspirations.
This emphasis on common values was echoed by standard on-line literature creator Mo Shu Bai (pseudonym), who referred to as on writers to “engage deeply with the emotions and ideas of individuals and communities in our time, and to explore new values through these experiences.”
The “Destined” net sequence, which was tailored from Mo Shu Bai’s novel of the identical identify, is now accessible in 10 languages, together with English, Thai, Korean, Japanese and Spanish, sparking full of life dialogue on worldwide social media.
Hu Huijuan, vice chairman of distinguished on-line literature platform Jinjiang Literature, additionally highlighted the significance of cross-cultural perspective-taking. She inspired writers to “stand in others’ shoes,” suggesting {that a} extra market-oriented strategy to cultural change would assist Chinese tales resonate extra organically abroad.
As extra Chinese writers and platforms embrace cross-cultural storytelling, the worldwide affect of Chinese on-line literature continues to rise. In November 2024, the British Library expanded its Chinese assortment by including 10 on-line novels written by Chinese authors, following its 2022 inclusion of an preliminary collection of Chinese on-line literature.
CREATIVITY & INCLUSIVITY
Beyond its international attraction, the regular progress of Chinese on-line literature can be pushed by its distinctive inventive mechanisms, mentioned Shao Yanjun, a professor of Peking University’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature.
Shao pointed to a manufacturing mannequin that facilitates financial rewards for authors and fosters large-scale literary creation.
According to the China Online Literature International Communication Report 2025, knowledge from 50 main home on-line literature platforms exhibits that by the top of 2024, the overall variety of Chinese on-line literary works had exceeded 33 million — up 7 % 12 months on 12 months.
This extremely dynamic inventive ecosystem has quickly established an unlimited “content reservoir” for Chinese on-line literature, Shao famous, including that its abroad unfold “has not been a top-down initiative, but a spontaneous movement driven by fan translations.”
In latest years, Chinese on-line literature platforms have advanced from mere content material exporters into worldwide hubs fostering authentic multilingual creation. International authors at the moment are utilizing these platforms to adapt and reinterpret tales by their very own cultural views and worth methods — a course of Shao described as an “open-source” mannequin of cultural creation.
For occasion, on on-line studying platform InternetNovel, authentic works by abroad authors outnumbered translated Chinese novels by an element of 100 by the top of final 12 months.
This inclusive, collaborative strategy additionally extends to variations of on-line mental property. Hu mentioned that Jinjiang Literature has been actively selling the variation of on-line literature into different artwork types equivalent to movie and tv, aiming to cater to various audiences world wide.
“When promoting online literature overseas, we should not create content in a vacuum,” Hu mentioned. “It is essential to understand the reading preferences and needs of international readers.”