A Brief Chronological History of China’s Network Literature
Editor-in-Chief Shao Yanjun Li Qiang
Peking University Press
August 2023
"A Brief Chronological History of China’s Network Literature" is the result of excavating and sorting out the basic historical materials of China’s network literature, which was completed by the Peking University network literature research team in ten years.Part two"A Brief History of Important Online Literature Websites", select 70 websites from hundreds, and write entries, brief history and special topics according to their importance. This is a convenient and reliable desk reference book for online literature researchers and enthusiasts.
Media backstage development"History of Net Text"Column, push the entries of the websites of "A Brief Chronological History of China Network Literature" respectively for readers, so please pay attention.
Fresh literature network
(1) Entries
The largest literary website in Taiwan, China, one of the most influential early literary websites in the whole Chinese-speaking region, plays an important role in cultivating the germination and development of Chinese mainland’s online novels. Founded on June 1, 2000, the founder Shen Yuan, referred to as "Xianwang" or "Xianxian".
Xianwang was born out of Yuanyuan Forum, an erotic novel forum under Giant Bean Square (founded in 1998). In 2000, there were some novel creations that did not take eroticism as the main content. Shen Yuan tried to establish a charging system, but the writers of erotic literature unanimously opposed it. In June, Shen Yuan established Xianwang, and published erotic novels. Rosen and other authors who became famous in Yuanyuan Forum continued to create in Xianwang. Xianwang has gathered many well-known fantasy and fantasy authors, and two of the "three fantastic books" in the early development of China’s online literature-Wandering Journey (Xiao Qian) and Legend of Little Soldiers (Xuan Yu) are all based on this (the other is Xiao Ding’s Zhu Xian). In addition to genre literature, Xianwang also contains other literary columns, such as "local literature" and "gay literature", where mainland authors such as Ji Dawei and Zhou Jieru have published their works.
After the failure of establishing the online charging system, Shen Yuan established Xianxian Culture Publishing House, which took renting a bookstore in Taiwan Province as the main channel, and created the operation mode of "online serialization-offline publishing" of online novels, which became the dominant business model of online novels before qidian successfully established the VIP paid reading system (October 2003). Since then, Griffin, Vientiane, Feixiang and other Taiwan Province publishing houses have also cooperated with mainland Dragon Sky and other websites to join this business model. Under the operation of this model (one volume per month, 60,000 words per volume, 10 to several hundred yuan for thousands of words), a large number of mainland online authors turned into professional authors, with hundreds of contracted authors at the peak. In the whole process of the commercialization of online literature in China, the cooperative operation of Taiwan Province websites, publishing houses, mainland websites and authors, such as Xianwang, is an important link that cannot be ignored.
After the successful operation of VIP paid reading fee system in mainland China, the influence of Xianwang began to decline. After 2005, we cooperated with mainland literature websites to launch VIP subscription mode, but with the maturity of mainland literature websites and the overall decline of Taiwan Province publishing industry, Xianwang declined year by year. In May 2014, Xianwang closed its station.
(Ji Yunfei, Liu Xinyi, Shao Yanjun)
▲ Fresh Literature Network Page
(2) A brief history
In 1998
The number of Internet users in Taiwan Province has exceeded 2 million. The government began to take over the domestic servers, and some privately built erotic literature websites, such as Tiger II and Aotu Club, were shut down.
Netizen Yuan Yuan (formerly known as Shen Yuan) founded the Giant Bean Square Forum and added Yuan Yuan’s discussion area. The main content of the discussion area is still erotic literature. The server is set up in North America, and the authors come from three places across the Taiwan Straits and overseas. Rosen began to create erotic works such as Zhu Yanxue and the Chronicle of Ali Buda in the discussion area of Yuanyuan, and began to serialize the prequel of Tales of Charm, which had a far-reaching impact on mainland readers.
In 1999,
On January 1st, all TV stations uniformly implemented the Measures for Classified Processing of TV Programs, adopting a four-level system of "universal level, protection level, guidance level and restriction level".
onemoonOn 25th, the Taiwan Province authorities abolished the Publishing Law and cancelled the strict publishing censorship.
In September, Taiwan Province chain bookstore "Jinshitang", established in 1983, announced the establishment of "Jinshitang Online Bookstore" to sell books in the form of online stores.
At the end of the year, a summary of erotic literature in 1999 was published in the discussion forum of Yuanyuan, commenting on the works of erotic literature writers in that year.
In 2000
The prequel of Rosen’s Tale of Charm was published by Vientiane Publishing House.
Feixiang Culture Publishing House launched the "Wisteria Collection" book series, which is the first book series focusing on BL theme in Taiwan Province; In June, the "Huajianji" book series, which belongs to Feixiang Publishing House, also turned to BL theme.
The mainland authors clay figurine (masterpiece "There are so many beauties in the country" and "In the world"), Duanmu (masterpiece "The Wind and Moon in the Mainland") and Half Frog (masterpiece "The Angel of Purgatory") rose to fame, and were called "the Three Masters of the Mainland".
On June 1st, under the background of some non-erotic literature creation in Yuan Yuan discussion forum, Shen Yuan set up a fresh literature network to place non-erotic literature, which was different from Yuan Yuan discussion forum, and promoted the novel publishing profit through the fresh culture publishing group to which the website belongs. Rosen, Lan Jing, Xuan Yu, Pistol, Xiao Qian and other authors who originally serialized their works in Yuanyuan Forum began to create in Xianwang. Among them, Blue Crystal’s The Magical Apprentice, Pistol’s Tian Mo Tan, and Xiao Qian’s Vague Journey have become classic works with fantasy themes. At the same time, authors of traditional literature, such as Ji Dawei and Zhou Jieru, began to create on Xianwang.
In addition to network literature, the website also includes traditional pure literature columns: there are sub-categories such as local literature and gay literature in the classification of works. At the time of its establishment, the daily page views reached 400,000, and the website is expected to reach 1.2 million by the end of 2000. At the beginning, readers can vote for their favorite authors. For every 1000 votes cast by readers, the author will get a remuneration of $1, and when the income reaches $20, Xianwang will send a check to distribute the remuneration.
On December 20th, Xianwang published five "heavyweight new books", covering thrillers, cities, gay literature, poems, short stories and other different types, marking the initial establishment of the mechanism that online literature is screened by readers and then published for profit. The five books are the thriller Snow White Murder by Purple Angel, Wu Fei and Jascha, the gay literature When the Monkey King falls in love with Tang Sanzang by Ji Dawei, the poetry collection by seven people including Lei Xuan, the short collection by five people including Ek-read, and the novel Ten Commandments of Naked Body by F&J.. Books are sold by Jinshitang Online Bookstore.
▲ "When the Monkey King falls in love with Tang Sanzang" (Ji Dawei), Xianwang (2000)
In 2001
In April, the classification of online novels changed for the first time, and the typology and commerciality of Xianwang’s works were greatly enhanced, and the types were refined: the classification of travel notes, literary criticism, soul novels, local novels, realistic novels and surreal novels was cancelled; Prose and miscellaneous notes merge, romance turns into romance/romance, suspense turns into reasoning/horror, history merges with martial arts, and science fiction merges with fantasy; Super-genre novels ranked second in advance.
ninemoon, giant bean square and Yuanyuan discussion area are closed.The appearance of erotic websites such as Alcatraz has become a continuation of Yuanyuan discussion forum.
Major publishing houses began to publish BL-themed books successively.tie.From 2000 to 2005, the publication of beauty-obsessed topics in Taiwan Province reached its peak.
In 2001
In October, Xianwang launched the "Mystery Novels" book series, trying to create "the Chinese world’s own reasoning writer".
In 2003
In October, Xianwang held an essay activity of "Romance and Fantasy". Since then, Xianwang has appeared a new classification of "Romance and Fantasy" combining romance and fantasy novel styles, and has since become one of the iconic works of Xianwang.
In 2004
In March, the website announced that the author should not publish "SM, erotic (H-text) and novels with political implications", but at the same time stated that "occasional and appropriate sexual descriptions are acceptable if the story needs them".
In June, the website set up a new "fan" section, and the works in this section are mainly Japanese ACG fans.
In 2004
In June, Xianxian Culture Publishing Group announced that its annual turnover reached a new high, exceeding NT$ 100 million.
On October 1st, the website implemented a full membership system, preparing for the VIP subscription mode: readers can read novels on the website and make comments and comments after registering as members. And the experience points system is introduced, so that readers can accumulate experience points after voting, leaving messages and other operations, which can be used for website function expansion.
In 2005
In March, when mainland literature websites launched VIP paid reading system in succession, Xianwang also launched VIP subscription mode. However, the slogan of Xianwang VIP is "free travel", that is, the author can freely specify the charging chapters and words, or quit the VIP halfway. At the same time, Xianwang decided to cooperate with other non-exclusive VIP literature websites in mainland China, so that writers can upload articles in all non-exclusive VIP literature websites around the world without restrictions.
On May 3rd, Xianwang officially launched a strategic cooperation with Magic Sword Book Alliance to fight against qidian supported by Shanda Group.
In June, Xianxian Culture Publishing Group announced that its annual turnover exceeded NT$ 200 million.
In August, Xianwang increased the publishing fee for authors of fantasy and beauty themes:For fantasy writers, once the works are published, the minimum remuneration is NT$ 600 yuan per thousand words, which is more stable than the starting subscription income;If the sales volume of physical books exceeds the minimum guaranteed quantity of Xianwang, you can receive royalties.When the author agrees that Xianwang will be published or adapted into games or movies in markets outside Taiwan Province, he can get a licensing fee.At the same time, as a strategic alliance partner of Xianwang, the authors of China original literature alliance (Magic Sword and Book Alliance, Tianyi Literature, Dragon Sky, Climbing E Station, Cuiweiju and Surfing Literature) can also contribute to the editor of Xianwang.For the authors who are addicted to beauty:If more than three books are published in Xianwang (one book with the same title or series), the manuscript fee for the fourth book will be raised to more than NT$ 30,000.This news caused a heated discussion among mainland authors.
In 2006
The Feixiang Publishing House was rumored to have closed down, and later reorganized into the Red Bean Culture Publishing House, and the publishing volume dropped greatly.
In January, when the number of submissions increased, Xianwang lifted the restriction of "online priority publishing rights". Previously, Xianwang had the right to decide whether to publish the work according to the quality of the work first. If Xianwang decided to publish the work within one month of the author’s submission, it must be published within six months, otherwise the publishing right will return to the author after six months. Authors can contribute to other publishing houses to attract more authors to open columns on Xianwang.
On March 13th, Xianwang encouraged readers to buy published books or recharge e-books in Xianwang’s online bookstore to become "Fresh Book Friends", and "Fresh Book Friends" could read part of the first episode of e-books launched by Xianwang for free. At the same time, the popular e-books on mainland literature websites are also on the shelves of Xianwang’s online bookstores.
In May, in view of the frequent phenomenon of website piracy and plagiarism, Xianwang launched the corresponding reporting and handling methods. Readers can leave a message or send an email on the discussion board to report stealing or plagiarism. Xianwang will investigate and give the author three days to respond. If the author apologizes or explains the situation within three days, the relevant column will be deleted. If the author does not respond after three days, the account will be closed. As the same IP has been stolen repeatedly, the IP will be blocked.
In June, the website page was revised. The classification of the works of Xianwang is improved, and more attention is paid to the subdivision of readers; The pattern of the four major works-Yiwen Pavilion, Langqing Pavilion, Fanren Pavilion and Latte Pavilion-has basically been laid. Among them, there are martial arts Xianxia, fantasy, suspense and light novels in the different language halls; There are romantic fantasy, beauty obsession, romance and other types in Langqing Pavilion. The fan library can publish fan humanities and fan maps; Latte Hall can publish poems, essays, gay literature and other works.
In 2007
In July, Xianwang collected a "trial reading brigade" from readers, who can apply for a trial reading of the upcoming novel and make comments and suggestions.
the year of 2008
In September, Xianwang launched a new VIP system and a new virtual currency "fresh currency", with a ratio of 1: 1 to NT dollars and a ratio of 1: 1 to Qidou shopping money. Mainland users can recharge fresh coins through Alipay and credit cards. At the same time, influenced by the VIP mechanism in mainland China, Xianwang launched a new VIP system, and began to charge according to the number of words rather than the number of articles. The price per thousand words was NT$ 0.2. After the author joins VIP, there will be a dedicated network editor. Xianwang implies that entity publishing will also find the target in VIP works, and VIP works can still be voted by readers. However, due to the stipulation that published works cannot be serialized on the Internet, readers still prefer to buy physical books offline rather than pay for reading online, and VIP subscription income is not the main source of author’s income.
In December, Xianwang expanded its enrollment to edit the theme of beauty and light novels. Danmei has become the type feature of Xianwang.
In 2009
In January, the website page was revised again, and "daily tweets" appeared in the middle of the page, recommending works to readers according to various categories every day. Readers don’t need to search and find their own works, and the influence of website editing and recommendation on the popularity of works is improved.
onemoonOn the 26th, Xianwang launched the "Writer’s Star" activity, which explored new authors who were welcomed by readers and had potential among non-VIP authors, and encouraged new authors to sign contracts with websites to enter V.
2In June, the website launched a grading system.Writers can move existing articles into folders and grade them (mainly to distinguish whether they contain eighteen banned contents), and readers can choose whether to accept eighteen banned contents in their personal settings.
In April, the website launched a new "Drawing Gallery" section, where artists can publish illustrations, fan drawings, cartoons, picture books and Gif animations.
In June, the website launched an exclusive author’s management page, and the author can not log in.(dry) landAs a writer in the case of a member.(dry) landManage articles to make the management system more stable and convenient.
In August, the number of readers who can vote every day changed from two to three, which can support different columns of three writers, and each vote can be converted into two writers’ points;The category of "Romance" in "Langqing Pavilion" was renamed as "Love Novel".
2010 years
At the beginning of the year, Xianwang began to explore the cooperation projects of mobile e-books, which have been put on the shelves of mobile e-books malls of China Mobile (Mainland China), Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan Province), Yuanchuan Telecom (Taiwan Province) and other communication companies, and have begun to cooperate with e-reader manufacturers on both sides of the strait.
In March, Xianwang launched the service of selling chronicles on behalf of India, including prepress production, printing and consignment by Qidou Shopping Network.
fourmoonIn view of the difficulty in connecting when visiting Xianwang in mainland China, Xianwang has added a special domain name for mainland China:Http://xianxian.mooo.com or http://mfn.moo.o.com。
In June, Xianwang was released to readers.(dry) landThe restrictions, the reader is not boarding.(dry) landYou can also read some free and public articles in the case of;For VIP works that have not been updated for 2 consecutive months and the author cannot be contacted, Xianwang provides refund service.
sevenmoonIn view of the increasing number of pornographic content on certain topics, Xianwang forces the author to re-grade or modify the works containing eighteen forbidden contents.
▲ Qidou Shopping Network icon
In 2011
In January, fresh coins were used separately from Qidou shopping money, and fresh coins became the exclusive virtual currency of Xianwang. NT$ 1 can be converted into S $25, and the price of VIP works per thousand words becomes S $5.
In October, Xianwang once again forced the author to classify the works with pure H content, human and beast H content, underage (children) H content or bloody violence content accounting for 30% as "eighteen prohibitions" to avoid reporting; The layout of the website has been changed again, highlighting the significance of the list: the classification of works has moved to the top, and the weekly tweets and VIP fresh shelves occupy the visual core.
In December, the mobile version of the website of Xianwang was launched. Traditional is http://www.myfreshnet.com/BIG5
/MF； Simplified is http://www.myfreshnet.com/GB/MF.
In 2012
There is a vicious price war in Taiwan Province’s publishing market, and the market income of fresh-net physical books has declined sharply.
In March, some works of Jinjiang Literature City settled in Xianwang, and Xianwang specially set up a "Jinjiang Pavilion" section for it. Its sub-sections included six categories: romantic fantasy, beauty-seeking BL, beauty-seeking GL, love novel, beauty-seeking fan, and humanity. However, some authors in Jinjiang said in Jinjiang Forum that Jinjiang had not informed this situation.
In April, Xianwang sub-section "Fresh Book City" was launched, and readers can download e-books for a fee.
fiveIn June, some works of Fengmingxuan and Zongheng Chinese Network were settled in, and Xianwang also provided special partitions.There are two kinds of fantasy and love novels under Fengmingxuan Pavilion.Under the "Vertical and Horizontal Pavilion" of the vertical and horizontal Chinese website, there are four categories: fantasy, reasoning thriller, love novel and martial arts Xianxia.
In 2014
In April, the fresh network server frequently appeared abnormal.
In May, Xianwang experienced poor management and a shortage of capital turnover, and it was reported that it was in arrears with the author’s manuscript fee. It is reported that each author’s owed manuscript fee ranges from several thousand yuan to several hundred thousand NT dollars. According to Xia Meng, the author of Xianwang, the amount of arrears has accumulated to several million NT dollars. Some authors want to go to the office, but they find that people are empty. The website refused to respond for reasons such as "insufficient manpower". In this case, many authors decided to take back the copyright of the works signed by Xianwang and initiated judicial proceedings, but it was unsuccessful because the person in charge was overseas. At the same time, Xianwang updated its rules and regulations, saying that readers who have not used VIP services for more than two months will be charged a "service fee" of 500 Singapore dollars (about 20 Taiwan dollars) per month, which caused public outrage. In May, the website of Xianwang could not log in and the website was shut down.
reference data
1. Relevant historical materials come from the historical web pages of Internet archives.
2. Xianwen. com: Xianwang first published a book for the author of its Xianwen. com, originally published in Xianwen. com, published on June 6, 2000 in http://www.myfreshnet.com:80/BIG5/literature/books.asp, and inquired on April 19, 2018.
3. Fresh Literature Network: Fresh Writer VIP Free Travel FAQ, originally published on the bulletin board of Fresh Literature Network, published on August 8, 2005 in http://www.myfreshnet.com:80/BIG5/freelancer/free_faq.asp, and inquired on April 19, 2018.
4. Fresh Literature Network: "Attention! ! Attention! ! The highest remuneration for writers is open to the public, so those who want to be writers should look carefully! ! ! (A thousand words and a thousand yuan’s remuneration has been made public), originally published on the bulletin board of Xianwen. com, published on August 8, 2005, http://www.myfreshnet.com/big5/literature/announcement/20050808.htm, and inquired on April 26, 2018.
5. Xianwen. com: "Unblock the Submission Channels and Prosper the Fantasy Market Together", originally published on the bulletin board of Xianwen. com, dated August 8, 2005, http://myfreshnet.com: 80/big5/literature/announcement/20050825.htm, and inquired on April 26, 2018.
6. Historians of later generations: Fantasy Website Fengyunlu, published in 2005, is no longer available. The version based on this article is Fantasy Website Fengyunlu of Xizi Academy, which was last updated on July 5, 2005. The website is http://www.westshu.com/xiaolei32693/index.htm, and the query date is January 7, 2019.
7.weid: Ten Years of Online Reading (1998-2008), published in Longkong Forum on June 15th, 2008, revised on May 9th, 2010, website: http://www.lkong.net/thread-236350-1-1.html, and query date: January 7th, 2019.
8. Cloud Burning Day: "Those Years, the Fresh Net in Our Memory", published on the Netease blog of Cloud Burning Day, the release date: August 7, 2013, the website: https://pilling18.rssing.com/chan-10194084/article115.html, and the query date: July 31, 2021.
9. Apple Daily: "Where is my novel? Strike of Writers in Arrears of Xianwang, originally published in Apple Daily, published on April 21st, 2014 in https://tw.appledaily.com/new/realtime/20140421/382718/, and inquired on April 19th, 2018.
10. Miss Qiu Misan: "My Days in Xianwang" was published in Zhihu on July 24, 2017, with the website in https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/28081447 and the inquiry date on January 7, 2019.
(Liu Xinyi)
It connects the fresh culture of online serialization and offline publishing.
What kind of operating structure does it have?
Named dreamy "Green Forest" and "Stevia Sugar"
Which book series does Xianwang represent?
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