Starting a new chapter

Chinese web novels are making a big push to develop global market with 'suitable, entertaining' translations

A web novel that was simultaneously published in Chinese and English will be updated in the coming months with new chapters.

I Am Supreme was published by China Reading Limited on webnovel.com on June 1 and has 55 chapters in English, which are free to read. The novel is expected to have 300 chapters.

"The website is our effort to cater to the needs of global readers, and to develop the market," Wu Wenhui, CEO of China Reading Limited, said at the China Reading Eco Summit in Beijing in June.

A 200 million yuan fund has been launched by China Reading Limited to help promote online literature. Provided to China Daily

The book's author, Fengling Tianxia, is popular in the online genre of xuanhuan, a mix of fantasy and martial arts, and has created five web novels since 2009, of which three are in English on the website, including Otherworldly Evil Monarch (175 chapters) and Realms in Firmament (338 chapters).

His books have been viewed millions of times, and he is known for his depiction of brotherhood, inspired by his early days in the Army.

"It will not be a typical plot where the weak slowly grow in strength," says Fengling Tianxia.

"I prefer to write out my ideal image of man.

"Love, friendship, battle and revenge ... these are some elements that attract readers from any culture."

A reader who goes by the name DaolordMohan online comments on the book: "It's one of the best I have ever read. Comparable to Coiling Dragon (the first Chinese web novel translated into English). Wish the quality would remain the same without fillers in the future."

CEO Wu says that in recent years his company gradually realized there is a big market for Chinese web novels in the United States and Europe as well as the traditional overseas markets in Southeast Asia.

Some translators have emerged online in recent times.

"We know good stories transcend languages and cultures," Wu says.

The Beijing summit discussed the development of web novels in China with regard to content, sales and their international potential.

Wu says webnovel.com will provide up to 300 works in English by the end of the year, with a total of 70,000 chapters, for an estimated readership of more than 1 million.

Besides English, the novels will also be published in such languages as Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Liu Yuren, the website's manager, says that technology will help the website to grow in terms of quantity and translation quality.

While in traditional publishing, translating, editing and releasing of a foreign version of a new work may require time, a quick development in this regard was the Chinese translation of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, which took the translators a month before it was published by China Citic Press.

In the realm of web novels, the chapters take less time.

"The internet values speed and sharing, and we're an internet-based technology company for content management," Liu says.

He says the website has recruited 100 translators and 40 editors globally since March.

"The translators are bilingual, and the editors oversee the quality, making it suitable and entertaining," he says.

The biggest challenge for Liu's team is to go through 10 million works with 200 themes by 4 million registered writers on the group's Chinese-language websites.

"Artificial intelligence and cloud computing will offer more ways to publish new stories and give more information about the readers," Liu says.

Comments from foreign readers will also be read by the writers and play a role in their future storytelling, he adds.

Currently, among the most popular genres are fantasy and sci-fi.

At the Beijing event, Wu also announced that the group has launched a 200 million yuan ($29.4 million; 25.8 million euros; ￡22.8 million) fund to help develop more quality works and enhance cooperation with partners like traditional publishers.

"We believe we can dream bigger. We opened up the domestic market for web novels some 15 years ago. Now, we expect a 'renaissance' of Chinese literature online," he says.

meijia@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/14/2017 page20)